Member representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi federal constituency of Abia State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Amobi Ogah has rejected the judgement of the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, NAEPT, sitting in Umuahia which sacked him as the winner of the Feb. 25 National Assembly Election.
The tribunal in its ruling on Wednesday declared the petitioner, Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha of the All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of a suit marked EPT/AB/HR/8/2023.
The judgement was delivered by the Chairman of the National and State House of Assembly election petitions in Abia state, Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe.
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Justice Adeyinka declared Onyejeocha winner with a total number of 11,936 votes while the second and third respondents had 9,728 votes.
He also said that Ogah was not qualified to contest in the election as he and Labour Party did not comply with the provisions of section 77 by not submitting their membership register to INEC.
In his reaction in a statement, Ogah said he rejects the ruling and will go ahead to challenge it in court.
“Let me be clear that I am rejecting the tribunal’s ruling and will appeal the obvious miscarriage of justice, fairness, and objectivity”, he stated.
According to Ogah, “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 who discarded all known principles governing election adjudication and enunciated their own principles. Indeed, manifestation of it was writ large 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.
“I want to use this medium to call on my constituents who voted for me, knowing my capacity to deliver dividends of democracy to them, to be calm law and abiding as I appeal the judgment delivered by the tribunal.
“For the records, I scored a total of 11,769 votes against my Opponent whom the commission said scored a total of 8,752 votes. It is very bizarre that despite calling a lone witness and dumping several strange result sheets before the Tribunal, the members of the panel cognized the same and disregarded original copies of the result sheets produced from proper custody.”
He urged the people of the constituency to remain calm as he is poised towards restoring his mandate at the Appeal Court.
