The tree litigants floored yesterday at the Anambra State Governorship Election Tribunal by Governor Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have vowed to head for the Appeal Tribunal. They are Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and factional APGA aspirant, Dr. Chike Obidigbo.

A statement circulated last night by Anambra State APC Publicity Secretary, Chief Okelo Madukaife, said: “The Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal headed by Hon Justice Ishaq Bello today in their wisdom dismissed the petition filed by Senator Chris Ngige along with our great party all Nigeria Progressive Congress (APC).

“This followed a 12-hour notice of judgement given by the tribunal yesterday fixing the judgement a day ahead of the hearing of our cross appeal at the Supreme Court, as well as our defence of our Court of Appeal victory in the apex court all connected to issues within the trial.

“In some aspects of the judgement the tribunal surprisingly overruled the Court of Appeal.

“So far our lawyers have on the basis of the verbal judgement pronounced deciphered numerous grounds of appeal, and are consequently headed for the Court of Appeal.

“We have always believed from what we observed, heard and perceived that the justice of our well grounded case will be settled in the higher courts of our land.

“We have once again been proved right, as we were on February 19, 2014 and February 28, 2014 and March 5, 2014, in the ruling of the tribunal which we eventually won its consolidated appeal in the Court of Appeal on April 15, 2014.

“We may in due course make further comments on this judgement, which might as well have been written by our opponents in the litigation.

“Ndi Anambra and Nigerians are in our estimation seized of the facts of the sham that took place in Anambra State in the name of elections and the quality of evidence available to the tribunal at the trial.

“We thank our overwhelming supporters for their undiluted support in the struggle to restore the right of our state to choose its leaders and hope that we would have an opportunity to restore whatever the judiciary has lost by this flawed judgement.”

News Express learnt that counsel for Ngige, Nwoye and Obidigbo have already applied to the tribunal for the release of the comprehensive judgment to enable them prepare themselves for the next phase of the legal battle at the Appeal Court in neighbouring Enugu State.

The trio are challenging Obiano’s victory in the November 16, 17 and 30, 2013 governorship election after polling 180,178 votes. Obiano was declared winner on December 1 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with Nwoye coming second with 97,700 votes, Ngige third with 95,963 votes and Mr. Patrick Ubah of the Labour Party (LP) fourth with 36,495 votes.

•Photo shows Senator Ngige with 40-bag evidence at the election petition tribunal.