Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has criticized Uche Nnaji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his persistent legal actions seeking nullification of his election, describing him as a vexatious litigant.
Mbah’s comments came in response to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision on Friday, which dismissed Uche Nnaji’s appeal as incompetent.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Mbah as the winner of the governorship poll with 160,895 votes while Nnaji scored 14,575 votes, trailing other contenders in the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Labour Party and PDP’s Mbah.
Nnaji, who ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, filed a petition alleging that Mbah had presented a forged certificate and had not received the majority of lawful votes.
However, the election tribunal dismissed Nnaji’s petition, citing violations of several provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. His appeal to the Enugu State Court of Appeal was also rejected.
At the Supreme Court, a five-judge panel led by Justice Tijani Abubakar found fundamental flaws in Nnaji’s arguments and subsequently dismissed his appeal.
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdict, the Head of Peter Mbah Media Office, Dan Nwomeh, characterized Nnaji’s actions as vexatious, emphasizing the wide margin by which he lost the election.
Nwomeh highlighted that both the tribunal and Court of Appeal had already dismissed Nnaji’s case, and the Supreme Court upheld their decisions.