SULEIMAN GALADIMA, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This Court heard and allowed this Appeal SC.18/2016 on the 3rd February, 2016. I promised to proffer reasons for doing so today, 26th February, 2016, today. My reasons are set out below.
This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, in APPEAL No: CA/OW/EPT/6/2015 delivered on 31st December, 2015, wherein the Court allowed the appeal of the 1st and 2nd Respondents [hereinafter referred to as the ("Respondents"). The Governorship Election Tribunal which sat in Umuahia, Abia State had on 3rd November, 2015 dismissed the petition filed by the 1st and 2nd Respondents in which they challenged the declaration of the Appellant as the winner of the Governorship Election conducted in Abia State on 11th and 25th April, 2015.
In a nutshell, the Appellant herein contested in the Gubernatorial Elections of 11th and 25th April, 2015, as the candidate of the 3rd Respondent, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The …