Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who represents the Abia-North senatorial zone, won the election on February 25.
This was confirmed by the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.
In a unanimous decision on Monday, the National Assembly Petitions Tribunal, Umuahia, which had earlier rejected the petitions of the Labour Party’s Nnamdi Iro Orji and the People’s Democratic Party’s Mao Ohuabunwa for lack of merit, was affirmed by the Appeal court presided over by Justice Abiri JCA.
The court upheld Kalu’s victory in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and stated that the former Abia governor’s election was conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act. The judges of the appeal court also rejected the petitioners’ claims that the election was not held in more than 120 voting places, primarily in the zone’s Ohafia and Arochukwu Local Government Areas.
In addition, the court denied Iro Orji’s petition to disqualify Senator Kalu for purportedly admitting in front of the Federal High Court that he had been found guilty of fraud.
According to the panel’s decision, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu’s conviction under section 66 of the Nigerian constitution is invalid because it was revoked.
The panel further dismissed the appeals of Iro and Ohuabunwa, ruling that the PDP and LP appellants had not produced sufficient evidence to support their claims that elections had not taken place in certain polling places.
In its interpretation of the constitution, the court also upheld Kalu’s right to run for office on the grounds that the Supreme Court had overturned his conviction and trial. Three other arguments put forth by the LP candidate were rejected in Kalu’s favor.
At Ohafia, INEC returning officer for Abia North, Mr. Chinedu Nnamdi, proclaimed Kalu, an APC chieftain, the winner.
In the very competitive Senate poll on February 25, Kalu a two-time lawmaker and current chairman of the Senate committee on privatization and commercialization was proclaimed the winner by INEC with 30,805 votes, defeating Nnamdi’s 27,540 votes.
Mao Ohuabunwa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the senator for Abia’s other opponent, received 15,175 votes to finish third.