By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State has urged two of his opponents, Ben Odo of All Progressives Grand Alliance and Ifeanyi Odii of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 gubernatorial election to stop further litigations against him after the validation of his victory by the State Election Petition Tribunal.
Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, Prof Ben Odoh and Chief Ifeanyi Odii.
Nwifuru expressed joy over the validation of his victory in the March 18 gubernatorial poll by tribunal, yesterday in Abuja.
He described the court as the last hope of the common man, for upholding the mandate given to him at the polls by Ebonyi citizens and however advised his two political opponents to join hands with his administration to develop the state more.
The governor expressed worry over the grounds on which his opponents based their litigations against his victory, especially on his defection to the APC from the PDP, and remarked that the tribunal delivered the judgement on the guber election according to Nigeria's constitution.
"Today, I can beat my chest to say that I have confidence in the judiciary. But Odoh and Odii should stop further litigations against me. They should rather bring their beautiful ideas on how to develop Ebonyi State more,” he hinted.
He explained that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly in 2018 became financially autonomous, and before he defected to the APGA, he formally wrote to his former party, PDP through his ward chairman and Secretary, where his call to reverse the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket to the southeast before seven days was anchored.
According to him, the call for reversal of the PDP presidential zoning was not honoured by his former party, till 21 days, and thereafter, he joined APC in November 2020.
While commending the tribunal and his legal team for their excellent performance leading to his victory, Nwifuru stressed the need to protect the integrity of the legal profession by the practitioners, by assuring the tenets of laws are not abused in service delivery to humanity.
