Lawan inaugurates Ibezim as Imo senator

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, yesterday, swore in Chukwuma Frank Ibezim as Senator representing Imo North District in the National Assembly.

The oath-taking took place at 11:02 a.m. before the commencement of plenary and it was administered by the Clerk to the Senate, Ibrahim El-Ladan.

The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had on February 16, 2021, affirmed the December 4, 2020 verdict of the trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, which disqualified Ibezim as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate over discrepancies in the educational certificates he tendered before the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The suit was instituted by one Asomugha Elebeke, while APC, INEC, and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume were respondents.

In another judgment by a Federal High Court in Abuja on March 18, 2021, the court had ordered the electoral umpire to declare Ararume as the winner of the December 5, 2020, legislative by-election.

Justice Taiwo Oladipupo Taiwo, in his ruling, affirmed Ararume’s candidacy.

But Justice Emmanuel Agim of the Supreme Court, while delivering a unanimous judgment of the panel on Friday, April 16, 2021, maintained that the suit and verdicts of the two courts could not stand because it was statute-barred.