Tribunal affirms Elechi's election.

The petition filed by the ANPP candidate in the state, seeking to nullify the Ebonyi state governor's election, was dismissed.

The Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, on Friday upheld the election of Chief Martin Elechi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor of Ebonyi in the April 26, 2011 gubernatorial election. 

The court, in an unanimous four-hour judgment, dismissed the petition filed by Senator Julius Ucha, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate in the said election, for lack of merit. 

Ucha, in his petition, had prayed the tribunal to declare him winner of the election, claiming to have secured the highest number of votes cast in the polls.

Delivering the judgment in Abakaliki, the Tribunal Chairman, Nuhu Galadanchi said the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by law.

According to him, the petitioners further failed to establish that elections in the 13 local government areas were invalid or void by reasons of corrupt practice. 

"According to the evidence laid before us in this petition and in the findings we have made, the petitioners have failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by law.

“The petitioners have failed to give cogent evidence to sustain all the grounds upon which they questioned the election.
Consequently, we hereby dismiss all the reliefs sought in this petition, and the petition is hereby accordingly dismissed,” he said.   

In a swift reaction to the judgment, a representative of the lead counsel to the petitioner, Emmanuel Egbunonu said the petitioners would  appeal against the judgment. 

“Definitely we will appeal against the judgment. It was like the court and the petitioners doing a case. If you listened to the judgment, you will realise that the court was 90 percent talking about the petitioners. 

“They never reviewed that of the respondents. Surely we are going to appeal the judgment,” he stated.     

Egbunonu, however, appealed to ANPP supporters to remain calm, saying; “justice may be costly and time wasting, but at the end of the day, you will have justice”. 

Governor Elechi, on his part, said justice had been served.

“I am doubly bound to give thanks to God. Today is Saint Martin's Day, today we mark the end of the second World War, also today is my wife’s birthday," Elechi said in a statement. 

“The verdict of the tribunal is a confirmation that INEC did its jobs well and that Ebonyi people chose us.

“We did not come this far by violence. We were called to serve, those who think
otherwise are advised to be more reasonable. Politics of mutual tolerance and peace is what we practice in PDP."