Tribunal: Save Enugu Group Urges Opposition To Work With Mbah

A sociopolitical pressure group and pro-democracy advocate, the Save Enugu Group (SEG) has urged the opposition parties  to work with Governor Peter Mbah to realise his agenda for the state.

The group said this in a statement which congratulated Governor Mbah on his victory at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Enugu State.

The tribunal had yesterday upheld the election of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18, 2023 poll.

The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate Chijioke Edeoga and Chris Agu of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) had approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of the PDP candidate as the winner of the election on the grounds that Mbah wasn’t qualified to stand for the election due to alleged forgery of his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate and cases of over-voting in Udenu, Nkanu East and Enugu East local government areas.

But the tribunal, chaired by Justice Kudirat Murayo Akano, dismissed all grounds of the petitions.

However, in the statement signed by its publicity secretary, Hon Pascal Okolo, Save Enugu Group described the tribunal verdict as “victory for the people irrespective of political affiliation.”

The statement added, “For us, the judgment was straightforward and very clear on point of law.

The law is specific on qualifications to contest for governorship of a state and NYSC certificate is not a requirement for contesting for the office of the governor and, like the tribunal ruled, there is nowhere that the NYSC certificate was attached to the documents Governor Mbah submitted to INEC.”

The Save Enugu Group urged the opposition parties in the state to “join hands with the government of the day and embrace the Tomorrow is Now Agenda for Enugu State to move forward without further distractions.”