National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital, yesterday, dismissed a petition seeking nullification of the election that produced the current Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), representing Bende Federal Constituency.
   
The petition was filed by Kalu’s Labour Party (LP) rival, Frank Ifeanyi, on the grounds that Kalu, who is serving a second term in the House, was not qualified to contest the election.
    
According to the petitioner, Kalu was not the owner of the certificates he allegedly submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which was the 2nd respondent in the petition, and that Kalu did not score the highest number of lawful votes in the election. He also prayed that the deputy Speaker had changed his name(s) and duly gazetted the change(s).
    
Ifeanyi consequently urged the three-man tribunal, led by Justice Sampson Gane, to overturn Kalu’s election, submitting that INEC declared him in error.
   
The tribunal, in its judgement, ruled that it was Kalu’s right to change his name.
   
It further noted that the deputy Speaker equally harmonised the names in his certificate with a deed poll, which was published in the Federal Government official gazette.