Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Immediate past Deputy Whip of the House of Representatives and incumbent Minister of State for Labour, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, has been returned to the National Assembly.
This is following the sack of the member representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Amobi Ogah, (Labour Party), by the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia.
The tribunal subsequently declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Onyejeocha, the winner of the February 25 national assembly poll, and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ogah and issue a fresh one to the APC candidate.
Onyejeocha, a four-term lawmaker at the green chamber had approached the tribunal to seek the removal of Ogah alleging that he was not qualified to contest for the election in the first place.
She also alleged that the LP candidate was not validly nominated and sponsored by his party.
The former House Committee Chairman on Aviation, also sought a declaration that Ogah and Labour Party did not win the majority of the validly cast votes in the said election.
Onyejeocha, through her legal team, further urged the tribunal to declare that she and not Ogah,won the majority of the valid votes in the election.
Delivering judgment on the petition, Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Adeyinka Aderegbegbe, ruled that how a candidate is sponsored is both a pre- and post-election matter.
He held that the 3rd Respondent was not validly nominated and sponsored by the 2nd Respondent as the claims by the 1st Petitioner that INEC did not receive any notice concerning primaries of the 2nd Respondent was not controverted.
The Tribunal further ruled that it had in its possession, all the results of the election in the federal constituency, and was duty-bound to collate the results.
It added that after collating the results in its possession, it found out that the tabulation by the Petitioners was correct.
Subsequently, the Tribunal declared that the total votes polled by Onyejeocha was 11, 936 while Ogah’s total votes was 9,728.
The tribunal declared the APC candidate as the validly elected winner of the election.
In an interview, Lead Counsel to the 1st Petitioner, Professor Joshua Olatoke, hailed the tribunal for the judgment, and urged the Respondents to accept it in good faith.
He claimed that his client’s votes were reduced by the Respondents at the Ward Collation centres while inflating the figures scored by the LP candidate.
Reacting also, Counsel to the LP candidate, Bertram Faotu, expressed shock and disappointment over the judgment and vowed to appeal it.
“Can’t you see that the tribunal even overruled the Court of Appeal today in a Presidential Election Petitions Court? Is it not strange that the court of Appeal held today that Section 77 of the Electoral Act is an internal affairs of a political party and this tribunal is here saying something to the contrary?
“We won’t hesitate to appeal the judgment because the tribunal went strange on established principles of law.”
