The Imo State National and State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal has nullified the election of a member of the House of Representatives, Ikenga Ugochinyere of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The tribunal also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days.
This was contained in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of the tribunal, which conducted its proceedings in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, on Sunday, September 10, 2023.
It held that Ugochinyere was not validly nominated by the PDP to contest the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency election held on February 25.
In its lead judgement delivered by the tribunal chairman, Justice Anthony Akpovi, the court directed the electoral body to conduct the supplementary poll.
He said the supplementary poll should be in 55 polling units, where elections were not held on February 25.
The court held that the PDP and its candidate should be excluded from the supplementary election.
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The judgement followed a petition that was lodged before the tribunal by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abazu Benson.
INEC had declared Ugochinyere as the winner of the election with 13,026 votes.
The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chigozie, came second with 5,696 votes, while Benson of the APC came third with 2,368 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, the APC candidate filed a petition wherein he contended that Ugochinyere was not qualified to participate in the election.
The petitioner, among other things, argued that all the votes that were credited to the PDP candidate amounted to wasted votes.
He told the tribunal that contrary to the express provision of the Electoral Act, the PDP conducted its primary election in a venue that was outside the constituency.
The tribunal stressed that documentary and oral evidence that was laid before it established that the primary election of the PDP conducted on May 25, 2022, which produced Ugochinyere was outside the constituency.
Relying on the provisions of section 84 (5) (c)of the Electoral Act 2022, the tribunal held that the PDP’s primary election was invalid, adding that a valid candidate could not have emerged from an invalid primary election.
The tribunal maintained that for a primary election to be valid, it must be done in compliance with section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act.
It held that in view of the fact that Ugochinyere was not validly nominated, he was therefore not qualified as of the time the House of Reps election was held.
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