APC vows to appeal Ekweremadu’s victory

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will appeal the victory of former Deputy President of the Senate, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, at the State and National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Enugu.

The Chairman of the party in Enugu State, Mr Ben Nwoye, this on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), while reacting to the judgment of the tribunal that affirmed the victory of the Senator.

The candidate of the APC in Enugu West Senatorial Zone in the Feb. 23 general elections, Mrs Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, had approached the tribunal following the return of Ekweremadu as the winner of the poll.

In its judgement delivered on Sept. 9, 2019, the tribunal struck out the petition on the ground that the petitioners failed to prove their cases beyond all reasonable doubt and affirmed the victory of Ekweremadu.

Nwoye, however, said that necessary steps had already been taken to appeal the decision of the tribunal which he described as a ‘template judgement’.

He said that the party was disappointed at the decision of the tribunal after the party’s  legal team had put up a formidable argument to prove their case.

“We are shocked that the case turned out this way in spite of the overwhelming evidence we adduced,” he said.

Nwoye commended the petitioners’ legal team for putting up a good fight at the tribunal.

Mr Patrick Luke, the petitioners’ counsel, said that his clients had instructed him to appeal the judgment.

Luke said that the petitioners did all they could to prove their case, “but the trial court decided otherwise. We have an instruction from our clients to appeal the judgment.”

“There are fundamental errors in the judgment. We shall study it and respond accordingly.”