Following a fight between two INEC attorneys at the Lagos appellate court on Friday, the Labour Party’s leadership expressed concern that the commission was attempting to thwart its attempts to recover the mandate of its suspended House of Representatives candidate, Amobi Ogah.
This was all the while the party was pleading with Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, to look into and promptly resolve the matter.
On February 28, the electoral umpire announced Ogah as the victor of the Isiukwuato Umunneochi Federal Constituency election. Ogah received 11,769 votes, while Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who is currently the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, received 8,752 votes.
However, on September 6, the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which is based in the state capital of Abia, declared the election of the LP candidate running for the Isiukwuato Umunneochi Federal Constituency to be invalid.
A three-member bench of the tribunal declared on Wednesday in Umuahia that Ogah had not complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act, rendering a decision in the petition labeled EPT/AB/HR/8/2023.
Ogah contended that Onyejeocha’s appointment as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was an indication that she had given up on her appeal.
However, the panel rejected the lawmaker’s submission in its decision.
However, confusion emerged on Thursday when the issue was brought up for hearing in Lagos, the location of the Appeal Court, and two attorneys appeared, each waving a letter of authorization to testify on behalf of INEC.
Obiora Ifoh, the National Publicity Secretary of LP, responded at a press conference on Friday by reading the letter and saying that the commission intentionally staged the incident to thwart their attempts to regain Ogah’s mandate.
According to an LP spokesman, they began to believe that their candidate must have been stage-managed to look foolish after seeing the court scene.
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