Tribunal dismisses election petitions against Gov. Obiano
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on the whole the petition failed as it patently lacks substance and merit it is accordingly dismissed in its entirety consequently we affirm as valid the election and return of the first respondent as governor of anambra it ruled1 the anambra governorship election tribunal has dismissed two of the three petitions against the victory of gov. willie obiano in the nov. 18 2017 election in the state1 justice a.o. ayoola and justice birnin kudu were member 1 and member ii respectively of the tribunal1 nan reports that the all progressives grand alliance apga and the independent national electoral commission inec were first and second respondents respectively in the matters1 dr chukwudi obianaso and ms praise okechukwu candidates of african democratic congress adc and mega progressive people party mppp in the same election had prayed the tribunal to invalidate the victory1 obianaso in his petition said the election should be nullified because it was marred with corrupt practices perpetrated by obiano and his agents in connivance with inec1 inec should conduct a fresh election and obiano be disqualified to contest in the fresh election he said1 in her petition the mppp candidate said obiano was not duly elected or returned by the majority of lawful votes cast and that the exercise did not comply substantially with the electoral act1 obiano did not score the majority of valid votes cast in at least two-third of the 21 council areas in anambra in the election thus his return by the third respondent is unconstitutional irregular null and void and of no effect whatsoever she said1 the certified true copy ctc of the judgments made available to nan on friday by the tribunal said okechukwu could not substantiate her claims of electoral malpractice with credible evidence1 it said those allegedly involved in vote-buying and polling units where the alleged corrupt practices took place were not mentioned and that only one witness was not enough to testify on the claims1 the petitioners have woefully failed to prove by any credible evidence that the first respondent was not duly elected or returned as governor of anambra by the majority of lawful votes cast1 the petitioners have abysmally failed to prove with any modicum of satisfaction that the election in question was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with provisions of electoral act 2010 as amended1 the tribunal affirmed obianos victory in two separate unanimous judgments delivered by its chairman justice h.a. olusiyi a copy of which was made availbale to the news agency of nigeria nan on saturday1 on his part obianaso hinged his case on the claim that obiano bought some vehicles to unmanned persons including ward local government chairmen of the party and council care-taker chairmen1 he also alleged that funds were also disbursed to them all geared toward the election and spent in excess of n200 million allowed by the electoral act 2010 as amended1 but the tribunal said though the allegations on expenses were made before the election which it had no jurisdiction the petitioner did not give names of alleged beneficiaries1 it said the alleged beneficiaries were not also joined as parties in the petition and that the petitioner did not tender any pro-forma invoice in respect of the vehicles given out by obiano1 the tribunal said the petitioner listed about 15 documents which he intended to rely upon but could not successfully tender two in evidence including p1 and p21 these according to the tribunal were ctc of newspaper publications that have no probative value1 he did not call a single witness to corroborate or substantiate his allegations and did not tell the tribunal where the unlawful campaign took place nor deem it fit to call any election monitor to testify for him1 allegations of spending money beyond permissible limit massive sharing of money to voters and unlawful spending on election day was grossly unsubstantiated and pitiably tenuous1 with all issues considered and in the light of all foregoing we come to the irresistible and compelling conclusion that the petitioner has failed to prove by credible and satisfactory evidence that the election of the first respondent as governor of anambra was marred by corrupt practices1 the sole issue for determination is resolved in the negative against the petitioner the petition is dismissed in its entirety as it is bereft of any scintilla of merit1 we hereby affirm that the first respondent was duly elected on nov. 18 2017 the tribunal ruled1 the tribunal had earlier struck out the petition of african peoples party app against the governor following the preliminary objection raised by the respondents for lack of merit1 obiano candidate of apga won the election with a total of 234 071 from the total of 488771 votes cast1