The Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will, on Thursday, 21 September, deliver judgment on the 2023 governorship election in the state.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on 22 March, declared Mr Mbah, who was the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the 18 March governorship election in the state.
Mr Mbah polled 160,895 votes to defeat his closest challenger, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, who scored 157,552 votes.
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Frank Nweke Jr., garnered 17,983 votes to come third, while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Uche Nnaji, came fourth, with 14,575 votes.
The LP candidate, Mr Edeoga, filed a petition at the tribunal challenging the victory of Mr Mbah, now governor.
A three-member panel of judges, led by Kudirant Moraya, had informed the parties that the judgement would be delivered on Thursday.
The Enugu State Chapter of the Labour Party announced via its official Facebook page on Wednesday.
When contacted, Mr Edeoga, the LP candidate, also confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES, on Wednesday afternoon.
He said the tribunal would read the judgment at 9 a.m.
Among the contentious issues before the tribunal is the authenticity of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate presented by Mr Mbah to INEC.
Mr Edeoga and his party had argued that Mr Mbah ought not to have contested the election because he allegedly presented a forged NYSC certificate to INEC.
Although Mr Mbah repeatedly denied the allegation, authorities of the NYSC have insisted that the certificate possessed by the governor did not come from them.
Also, the LP candidate had asked the tribunal to nullify the election of Mr Mbah because there were irregularities including over-voting and non-use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System during the election in Nkanu East Local Government Area.
Mr Mbah hails from Owo, a community in the council area
