Minister of State for Labour and Employment and a four-time lawmaker that represented Isuikwuato/ Ummunnechi Constituency in Abia State in the House of Representatives, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, was, yesterday, declared the winner in the 2023 February 25 election.

The judgment nullified the earlier declaration of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Amobi Ogah, as the winner. Onyejeocha, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had filed a petition challenging the election and declaration of Ogah before the National Election Petition Tribunal that sat in Umuahia, which had Mr Justice Aderibigbe Adeyinka as chairman.

The tribunal, in its judgment, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw Ogah’s Certificate of Return and re-issue it to Onyejeocha, who is currently serving as Minister of State for Labour and Employment.

The tribunal held that Ogah and Labour Party could not prove his membership of the party and records of the primary election conducted in the  Isuikwuato Umunneochi Federal Constituency before the election.

According to the panel, the third respondent (Ogah), as pointed in the petition filed by Onyejeocha, did not also give a mandatory 21 days notice of the primary election from which he emerged as the LP candidate to the INEC, among others.

The tribunal further held that there was documentary evidence that Ogah was still a member of the PDP shortly before the election. It, therefore, affirmed the submission of the petitioner’s counsel that Ogah was not qualified to contest in the said election and consequently declared Onyejeocha as the lawful winner in the constituency election.

The panel, however, declined awarding N7 million canvassed by Onyejeocha.

MEANWHILE, Ogah has said he would head to the Court of Appeal over the decision by the election petition tribunal to invalidate his mandate. Ogah, who called on his constituents to remain calm and law-abiding as he would reclaim his mandate, said: “My opponent, whom I know, did not win the election and the judge cannot announce a result presented by the petitioner as concrete against the result presented by INEC.

“With the benefit of hindsight, this bizarre outcome is not totally strange as we had seen tendencies of clear compromise by the panel, which discarded all known principles governing election adjudication and enunciated their own principles.”

“Indeed, manifestation of it was perceived at the adoption of final addresses, wherein the current Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, made comments suggesting underhand dealings with the chairman of the panel.” 

According to him, he scored a total of 11,769 votes against his opponent, whom the commission said scored a total of 8,752 votes. He said: “It is very bizarre that despite calling a lone witness and dumping several strange result sheets before the tribunal, the members of the panel recognised same and disregarded original copies of the result sheets produced from proper custody.” 

He declared his rejection of the tribunal’s ruling and his resolve to appeal what he described as the obvious miscarriage of justice, fairness and objectivity.

He said no amount of distraction would make him lose focus on delivering promises made to his constituency.

“The will and wish of the people that came out en masse to vote me in is not in doubt, hence my prompting to challenge the judgment.

“One wonders why a minister already serving after a woeful defeat at the February 25 National Assembly poll could still be making frantic efforts to unseat the popular wish of the people in the electoral victory of labor party and it’s candidate.

“I am, however, confident that her desperation and mischievous attempt to scuttle the will of the people would be upturned by the justices of the appellate court,” he added.