LP’s Dennis Agbo declared winner of House of Reps election as Tribunal overturns results
The House of Representatives tribunal has overturned the election results for the Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, removing Simon Atigwe from his position. The tribunal has declared Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour Party (LP) as the rightful winner of the rerun election.
Initially, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that Atigwe, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won the rerun election held on February 3. Atigwe was reported to have received 23,863 votes, while Agbo got 23,226 votes.
Agbo, who had originally won the election on February 25, 2023, but was later dismissed by an appellate court, took his case to the tribunal. His lawyers argued that the rerun election was flawed due to incorrect vote counting and significant breaches of the electoral laws.
On August 14, the tribunal, led by Justice H.N. Kunaza, ruled in Agbo’s favor. The tribunal found merit in Agbo’s petition and declared him the true winner of the election.
Justice Kunaza’s panel annulled the additional 2,000 votes that had been added to Atigwe’s total. The correct results restored Agbo’s votes from February 25, 2023, which were 28,870, while Atigwe’s votes were adjusted to 14,229.
The tribunal also ruled that Atigwe was not duly elected, as Agbo’s votes exceeded Atigwe’s by a margin of 23,221 to 21,863. Consequently, the tribunal ordered that the certificate of return be withdrawn from Atigwe and issued to Agbo.
