The member representing Isiukwato, Umunneochi LGA Abia State, Hon Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party has rejected the ruling of the election tribunal sitting in Umuahia, annulling his victory at the National Assembly polls.
Ogah while reacting to the ruling, said he will appeal the judgment.
“I want to state categorically and for the records that I will appeal the judgment by the tribunal as soon as I conclude with my legal team. 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 disregarded the original copies of the result sheets produced from proper custody” Ogah said.
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He described the tribunal’s ruling as an “obvious miscarriage of justice, fairness and objectivity”.
He also said that no amount of distraction would make him lose focus on delivering the promises made to his people.
“The will and wish of the people that came out en mass to vote me in is not in doubt, hence my prompting to challenge the judgment. One wonders why a minister already serving after a woeful defeat at the Feb, 25th National Assembly poll could still be making frantic efforts to unseat the popular wish of the people in the electoral victory of the Labour Party and its candidate” he said.
He added that he was however confident that his opponent’s desperation and mischievous attempt to scuttle the will of the people would be upturned by the justices of the appellate Court.
The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, Wednesday, September 6, had sacked the member representing the Isuikwuato/Umunneochi federal constituency, Honourable Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party (LP) and upheld the victory of APC candidate, Onyejeocha.
Delivering its ruling on Wednesday, the court subsequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), to withdraw the certificate of return given to Ogah and issue the same to the petitioner, Honourable Nkeiruka Onyejeocha of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC).
Emmanuel Ukoh
