The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu on Wednesday dismissed the petition by Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party challenging the victory of Senator Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party in the Enugu East Senatorial District election.

The three-member panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar held unanimously that Chukwu was the duly elected senator representing Enugu East Senatorial District of Enugu State.

Nnamani, who was the former Enugu State governor between 1999 and 2007, had represented Enugu East Senatorial District in the 9th Assembly under the platform of the PDP. However, he declared support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, against his party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Despite being expelled from the PDP, Nnamani contested the senatorial election on the party platform but lost to Chukwu.

Nnamani had approached the tribunal challenging the election because over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices, and non-compliance with the electoral guidelines marred it. 

He urged the court to declare him the rightful winner of the election or invalidate the results of the polls.

However, the tribunal dismissed the petition for being “vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic, and an academic exercise.”

The tribunal also awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, LP, and INEC.