₦airaland Forum

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has sacked the member representing Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency, Stainless Chijioke Nwodo. In turn, the Appeal Court affirmed the appellant, Dr. Martins George Oke (PDP) as winner and duly elected Reps member for the said Federal Constituency.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on February 26, declared Labour Party's Nwodo as winner with 14089 votes against incumbent, Oke (PDP) and Samuel Chijioke Ekwueme (APC) who scored 12633 and 10016 votes respectively.

Dissatisfied with the results, Ekwueme & APC and Oke & PDP approached the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu, seeking the disqualification of the Candidate and/or nullification of the election for different reasons.

Whilst Ekwueme hinged on irregularities in the election and the membership of Nwodo in the Labour Party, the PDP Candidate's Petition was hinged on Nwodo's qualifications and inconsistencies in his name.

The tribunal led by Justice Nusirat Umar on 8th September, dismissed both petitions as lacking in merit.

Justice Umar ruled that Oke failed to prove the case of forgery against the respondents, pointing out that there was a contradiction in the letter from Enugu State Examination Development Centre (EDC).

The judge ruled that no witness came from EDC to testify against the certificate and said that the issue of inconsistencies in the name couldn’t be proved by the petitioners.

The panel, thereafter, dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

On the petition by the APC, which is hinged on the membership of the winner to the Labour Party and irregularities during the election, the panel ruled that the petitioner could not prove any of his allegations and dismissed same as being incompetent and lacking in merit.

Obviously not happy, Oke of the PDP who was in the House of Reps between 2003-2007 & 2019-2023 appealed the judgement of the tribunal.

The Appeal Court delivering the judgement via Zoom, set aside the decision of the tribunal and ordered INEC to immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Nwodo and issue same to the appellant, Oke.

The panel held that the LP Candidate was not qualified to stand for the election. The Court said they will give reasons for their judgement at a later date.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos upheld the tribunal sacking of Labour Party's Barr. Chijioke Stanislaus Okereke and affirmed Anayo Onwuegbu as duly elected member representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on February 26, declared Labour Party as winner with 24571 votes against Onwuegbu (PDP) who scored 24074 votes.

Unhappy with the turn of events, Onwuegbu approached the tribunal challenging the declaration of Okereke as the winner of election on the grounds that he was a stranger to the election as his name wasn’t on the result sheet as the candidate of the Labour Party.

Recall that the name of former minority leader of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Toby Okechukwu appeared on the list published by INEC for the election. Also, his name appeared on the result sheet and not that of Okereke.

However, Okechukwu made a U-turn in September 2022, distancing himself from the INEC/Labour Party list insisting that he remained a bonafide member of the PDP.

Buoyed by that decision, Okereke had approached a High Court sitting in Enugu to claim the ticket of the Labour Party and a judgement was given in his favour.

On September 09, the Justice Nusirat I. Umar-led panel agreed with the Petitioners that Okereke wasn’t a candidate for the election and accordingly, directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue certificate of return to the PDP Candidate.

INEC had argued that the Federal High Court judgement came late when printing of voting materials had already taken place.

However, Chijioke headed for the Appellate to reclaim his mandate but met no favours as the Appeal Court completely upheld the judgement of the lower Court and affirmed Onwuegbu as duly elected and returned.

LeoDekings:
Leadership in Nigeria is a joke

Bhella5:
Appeal dey strip LP naked I always knew that "all eyes on judiciary" would have consequences.

Shevchenkko:
Tinubu will destroy Nigeria institutions completely.

Roboto11:
Elupee.

Top to bottom.


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