Abia tribunal upholds election of Orji, son

THE Abia State National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia
has upheld the elections of the immediate past Abia state governor Chief Theodore Orji and his son Chinedum Orji as senator for Abia Central and Lawmaker for Umuahia State Central Constituency respectively.

Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the ex governor and his son the winners of the Abia Central Senatorial and Umuahia Central state house of assembly elections respectively.

Former governor, and his son who is now the majority leader of the state house of assembly contested on the platform of the PDP.
Mr. Ahamdi Nweke, Mr. Sidney Onyemere had petitioned the tribunal, challenging the declaration of Orji and his son respectively as the winner of the election.

Also, tribunal the annulled the election of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for Aba North Constituency in the state house of assembly, Mr Emeka Nnamani, a native of Enugu state.

The tribunal headed by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo also struck out the petition filed by Mr Onyemere of APGA against Chinedum.
The Tribunal held that Onyemere’s petition was incompetent.

In the case of the Aba North State Constituency election, in which the PDP candidate Mrs Blessing Nwagba challenged the election of Nnamani, the tribunal which had Justice S. Yahuza as chairman, nullified the election conducted on April 11th, 2015 in Aba North State Constituency and ordered a re-run within the statutory 90 days.

The tribunal judgment held that though Nnamani scored the highest number of votes cast in the said election, he ( Nnamani ) was not qualified to stand for the election.