By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has upheld the election Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party (LP), as the Senator representing Enugu East Senatorial Zone.

The court dismissed the appeal filed by the former Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party and Ada Ogbu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and upheld the decision of the tribunal court.

The appellate court averred that the appeal is a pre-election matter and lacks merit.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had declared Chukwu as the winner of the Enugu East Senatorial district poll after he secured over 69,000 votes to defeat former governor of Enugu state, Nnamani who got about 49,000 votes.

Nnamani however, went before the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the declaration, alleging that the election was marred by over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices and non-compliance with the electoral guidelines.

In a judgement delivered on September 27, the tribunal upheld Senator Kelvin Chukwu’s victory.

The tribunal also awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, Labour Party and INEC.

The three-man panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar unanimously dismissed the petition for being vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic and academic exercise.