Appeal Court reverses tribunal ruling, reinstates Ugochinyere as Reps member

The Lagos division of the Appeal Court has affirmed the election of the House of Representatives member Ideato North and South Federal Constituency of Imo State, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere.

The Appeal Court panel led by Justice Abubakar Babandi Gumel set aside the ruling of the Tribunal which had sacked Ugochinyere.

The election petition tribunal sitting in Mararaba High Court had ruled that Ugochinyere’s PDP was no candidate for the election because there were no primaries in the Federal Constituency.

The panel which delivered the judgement on September 10th, also directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct rerun election Calls in 4 Wards between APC and LP candidates.

However, a unanimous judgment delivered by Gumel on Wednesday overruled the judgments of the tribunal.

Gumel held that the petition was a pre-election matter and as such, the tribunals lacked jurisdiction over pre-election matters.