Hon Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party, LP, was on Wednesday sent packing by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State.
The tribunal, while nullifying the election of Hon Ogah, declared the present Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkiruka Onyejiocha as the winner of the Isiukwuato/ Umunneochi Federal Constituency polls.
The tribunal held that Ogah’s emergence and victory failed to comply with the Electoral Act.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), had declared the LP candidate as winner of the constituency election where he was said to have scored a total of 11,769 votes against Onyejiocha who the commission said scored a total of 8,752 votes.
Not satisfied with the result, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate approached the tribunal, seeking the nullification of Ogah’s election.
Delivering judgement in the petition Wednesday in Umuahia, the three-man panel said the Ogah’s emergence as LP candidate did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“How a candidate is sponsored by a political party is both pre and post election matter; there is no evidence of giving 21 days notice to INEC by the respondents before conducting their primary election.
“No date of primaries was placed before us, no evidence of primaries and the 3rd respondent has always said it’s an internal affairs of the Party.
“We have tabulated and found out that the results computed by the petitioner is correct and the results computed by the 1st respondent is dis-countenanced,” the tribunal held.
Although Ogah had also argued that by her acceptance of the ministerial appointment, Onyejeocha had abandoned her petition.
However the tribunal in its ruling dismissed the submission of the lawmaker.
“We are of the view that section 66 is not applicable to this scenario because the petitioner is not a lawmaker of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the scenario prohibited by law is a person being a member of two arms of government,” the court ruled.
The tribunal agreed with the petitioner that there were over-voting in some electoral units in favour of Amobi Ogah and his LP, while her actual votes were not declared by INEC.
After subtracting the alleged inflated figures, the tribunal said Onyejiocha scored 11,976 votes, while Amobi Ogah scored 9,736 votes.