The House of Representatives Tribunal has dismissed Simon Atigwe as the representative for the Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency.
The tribunal has now confirmed Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour Party as the rightful winner of the rerun election for this constituency. Although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had previously declared Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the victor in the rerun election held on February 3, 2024, with Atigwe receiving 23,863 votes compared to Agbo’s 23,226.
Although Agbo initially won the election held on the 25th February 2023, but was later disqualified by the appellate court. His legal team argued that there were errors in vote counting and major breaches of the electoral act among other issues compromised the rerun election.
On Wednesday, August 14, the tribunal, led by Justice H. N. Kunaza, ruled in favor of Dennis Nnamdi Agbo, declaring him the legitimate winner of the Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal constituency.
Justice Kunaza’s panel annulled the extra 2,000 votes initially given to the PDP candidate and reinstated the results from February 25 2023 election, showing 14,229 votes for the PDP and 28,870 votes for the Labour Party candidate, Rt. Hon. Dennis Agbo.
The tribunal concluded that Atigwe was not properly elected based on the valid votes, with Agbo receiving 23,221 votes versus the PDP's 21,863. As a result Atigwe's certificate of return is to be revoked and reissued to Agbo.