The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has reaffirmed Hon. Thaddeus Attah of the Labour Party (LP) as the duly elected Member of the House of Representatives representing Eti Osa Federal Constituency in Lagos State.
The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal delivered the judgment on Thursday, setting aside the decision by the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal.
The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal had earlier invalidated Atta’s victory.
Attah had through his counsel Prof Mike Ozekhome, appealed the tribunal judgment and the panel unanimously agreed with Prof Ozekhome and held that the lower Tribunal erred in its judgement.
The Tribunal had relied on the evidence of witnesses who were not party agents where elections were held or where elections were cancelled, but who only came to tender Form EC 8 which they did not author before the court.
On the whole, the Appeal Court wholly set aside the judgment of the lower tribunal.
The Peoples Democratic Party candidate Bankole Wellington (Banky W), who came second in the polls, and the All Progressives Congress’s Ibrahim Obanikoro, had both through separate petitions, challenged the elections of February 25, 2023.
INEC had declared Attah winner of the February 25 election, having scored 24,075 votes, while Banky W who was represented at the Court of Appeal by Chief Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, scored 18,668; Obanikoro represented by Chief Abiodun Owoniko, SAN, scored 16,901 votes, respectively. Read more.
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