Politics

APC candidate rejects Abia Central election result over omission of name

Published

7 months ago

March 1, 2023

Chief Samuel Onuigbo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Abia Central Senatorial District, has rejected the outcome of the Feb. 25 National Assembly election.

His rejection of the result was over the omission of his party and name in the result sheet.

Onuigbo told newsmen in Umuahia on Wednesday that he rejected in its totality the figure of 7,997 votes allocated to him and his party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He said: “It is very astonishing that the conduct of last Saturday’s Elections left much to be desired as INEC failed in its statutory responsibility of ensuring free, fair and credible poll.

“It is disheartening to inform you that INEC failed to include the name of my party on the result sheet for the 2023 Abia Central Senatorial Election.

“Consequently, the documentation of my scores in the Election was shambolic.

“This made a mess of your votes for me and left our votes at the mercy of the Presiding Officers who chose to either leave out the result, record it among the invalid or in rare cases create a column with their own hands to enter it,” he said.

Onuigbo queried why his name was missing on the result sheet, after INEC had uploaded it on its portal as APC Senatorial Candidate on Dec. 22, 2022, following his Court of Appeal victory on Nov. 30, 2022.

According to him, this puzzle should be resolved by INEC and the leadership of my party, APC that made no effort to correct the anormally at the appropriate time.

Onuigbo, representing Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency, said that he wrote a complaint letter to INEC on Feb. 26, but the commission failed to correct it despite promise to do so.

The two-term legislator displayed before the newsmen, a photocopy of the result sheet for Senatorial election, which he obtained from INEC, as evidence for his claim.

He said that he was consulting with his attorneys on the appropriate response to the grave omission.

Onuigbo appealed to his supporters to remain peaceful and law abiding “in the face of the provoking situation.”

He congratulated Sen. Bola Tinubu on his victory at the Presidential election, as well as other winners in the Feb. 25 elections.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC had on Monday, declared Mr Darlington Nwokocha of Labour Party (LP) as the winner of the Abia Central Senatorial election.

The Returning Officer, Prof. Herbert Udo had announced that Nwokocha polled 92,116, while Rtd. Col. Augustine Akobundu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 41,447 votes.

He had said that Onuigbo of APC scored 7,997 votes, while also declaring that Chukwumere Wachukwu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) got 7, 395 votes.

Feature

Dollar is now the underground currency of Nigeria’s economy – Peter Obi

Published

1 day ago

October 2, 2023

Gift Oyekunmi

Businessman and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has lamented the ‘dollarisation’ of the Nigerian economy.

According to Peter Obi, the naira has faded in significance as the use of the dollar in the country has led to unproductivity.

“Dollar has become the underground currency of our economy. It shouldn’t be. We have a currency called the naira. All the things people use dollars to do that are not productive should be removed.’ Obi told Arise TV on Monday, October 2.

“I can assure you that when you remove it, it can strengthen the currency. Today, even when you want to do party primaries, people share dollars. That is not our currency.

“There should be a stiff penalty in dealing with the issue. If people earn dollars legitimately, let them spend it the way they want. However, it has now become a means of corruption and criminality in our system.”

Peter Obi added that the country should work more on exports to strengthen the currency.

Headline

Tribunal upholds Gov. Alia’s election

Published

1 week ago

September 23, 2023

Alero Danjuma

The Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Makurdi on Saturday upheld the victory of Gov. Hyacinth Alia of the APC in the March 18 Governorship Election.

Delivering the judgment, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Ibrahim Karaye, held that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain pre election issues raised by the petitioners, Titus Uba and PDP.

Karaye, who read the unanimous judgment, stated that only the Federal High Court had the exclusive jurisdiction to entertain issues bordering on pre-election matters.

He further said the petitioners’ case was also an abuse of court processes because the same case was filed by the petitioners before the Federal High Court Abuja Division and its judgment was not challenged by the petitioners.

He said the petitioners lacked locus standi to challenge the nomination of the 2nd and 3rd respondents by the 4th respondent since they were not members of the 4th respondent.

Justice Karaye further said that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of forgery against the 3rd respondent before the tribunal.

He said the 2nd and 3rd respondents were qualified to contest the March 18 Governorship Election and therefore, dismissed the case.

The petitioners, Titus Uba and the PDP, had dragged the respondents, INEC, Hyacinth Alia, Dr Sam Ode, and the APC before the tribunal, challenging their declaration by the INEC.

The petitioners argued that the 2nd and 3rd respondents, Gov Alia and Dr Ode, were at the time of contesting the election, not qualified to contest the March 18 Governorship Election.

They averred that the 4th respondent – the APC – did not follow the provisions of the law in the nomination of the governorship and deputy governorship candidates.

They also alleged that the 3rd respondent had presented a forged certificate to the 1st respondent, INEC, therefore, should be disqualified.

They, therefore, prayed among other things, for the nullification of their election and declare the petitioners as winners of the election, having scored second highest lawful votes.

The also contended that having not qualified to contest the election, their votes should be declared invalid and certificates earlier issued to them by INEC be withdrawn.

NAN reports that the petitioners in the suit did not challenge the result of the March 18 Benue Governorship Election but qualifications of the candidates.

However, the respondents in their counter arguments, urged the tribunal to dismiss the suit in its entirety as it was an abuse of court processes.

The respondents stated that the Federal High Court Abuja Division, had before the election, delivered judgment on the same matter which was filed by the petitioners but they did not appeal the judgment till date.

They also said that the issues raised were all pre election matter and only the Federal High Court had the exclusive jurisdiction to entertain same.

The 2nd and 3rd respondents clearly stated that since the prayers sought by the petitioners were all pre-election matters, the petitioners case was status bar and should be struck out.

They said the petitioners lacked locus standi to challenge the nomination of candidates of other political parties as they were mere meddlesome interlopers.