Tribunal dismisses former Abia speaker’s petition, upholds Aguocha’s election
By Emeka Okafor
The National Assembly Election Petition tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State Thursday upheld the victory of Obi Aguocha of the Labour Party (LP).
The three man panel of the tribunal in its ruling, dismissed the petition by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Rt. Hon Chinedum Orji seeking to nullify the electoral victory of Obi Aguocha , representing in the ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency.
The three judges of the panel in a unanimous judgment read by Honorable Justice Abubakar Kutigi dismissed Rt Hon Chinedum Orji’s petition for lack of merit and affirmed Hon Obi Aguocha as the winner of the Ikwuano Umuahia Federal Constituency.
Speaking shortly after the judgement, the counsel to the petitioner, Mr Obinna Nkume, said his team would review the judgement and decide on the next line of action.
“We get the records of the judgement, review it and decide our next line of action”, he said.
Also the counsel to the respondent, Mr Friday Nwokeocha, hailed the panel for delivering a sound judgement.
He called on the petitioner to accept the judgement in good faith and support Aguocha, whom he described as the petitioner’s brother.
He said, “the petitioner exercised his right by challenging the outcome of the election at the tribunal, he still has the chance of appealing the judgement, but I will advise him to accept the judgement and support Aguocha because we are one the future is still bright for him”.
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Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Aguocha the winner of the February 25, 2023 reps election after polling a total number of 48,199 votes to defeat Orji, who polled 35,196 votes.
But not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Orji, who is the former speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly and son of former governor Theodore Orji, approached the tribunal to seek redress.
