The current Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkiruka Onyejiocha, has been declared the winner of the Isiukwuato/Umunneochi federal constituency elections by the National Assembly election petition tribunal, which is seated in Umuahia, Abia State.
The panel determined that Ogah’s rise to power and subsequent win were illegal under the Electoral Act.
The Isiukwuato/Umunneochi federal constituency election was won by Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party with a total of 11,769 votes, defeating Onyejiocha, who the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, reported received 8,752 votes.
Onyejeocha, who was dissatisfied with the outcome, petitioned the National Assembly election petition tribunal to have Ogah’s election declared invalid.
Her petition requested seven reliefs.
On Wednesday in Umuahia, a three-person panel gave its ruling in the petition with the file number EPT/AB/HR/8/2023, concluding that the Ogah’s selection as the LP candidate had violated the Electoral Act’s requirements.
The decision states that “how a candidate is sponsored by a political party is both a pre-election and post-election concern; there is no indication that the respondents gave INEC 21 days’ notice prior to holding their primary election.
“No date for the primaries was presented to us, no proof of the primaries, and the third respondent has always maintained that it is a matter of internal Party business.
The results computed by the petitioner are accurate, while the results computed by the first respondent are disregarded, it was decided.
Ogah had additionally claimed that Onyejeocha’s acceptance of the ministerial job was evidence that she had given up on her appeal.
However, the tribunal rejected the legislator’s submission in its decision.
The petitioner is not a member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s legislature; the situation that section 66 forbids is a person serving in two capacities within the same branch of government, the court found.
The tribunal agreed with the petitioner that Amobi Ogah and his LP received more votes than they should have in some electoral units even though INEC failed to publish her actual votes.
The tribunal determined that Onyejiocha received 11,976 votes while Amobi Ogah received 9,736 after deducting the allegedly inflated numbers.
Uche Ogah, a former minister of state for mines and steel development, is the elder brother to Amobi Ogah.