The Election Petitions Tribunal for National and State House of Assembly Elections in Imo State has sacked Ikenga Ugochinyere, a member of the House of Representatives, from his position.
Ugochinyere had contested the election representing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The tribunal has ruled that he was not eligible to participate in the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency election and has ordered a supplementary election to be held within 90 days in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially declared Ugochinyere as the winner of the election with 13,026 votes. Obi Chigozie of the Labour Party (LP) came in second with 5,696 votes, while Abazu Benson, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, secured third place with 2,368 votes. Subsequently, the APC candidate, Benson, filed a petition marked: EPT/IM/HR/10/2023 with the tribunal to seek redress.
In his petition, the APC candidate asserted that Ugochinyere was not qualified to run in the election and argued that all the votes attributed to him were wasted votes. He contended that the PDP had violated the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 by conducting its primary election outside the constituency’s designated venue.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Sunday, the three-member tribunal panel, which conducted its proceedings in Nasarawa State, concluded that Ugochinyere had not been validly nominated by the PDP to contest the election.
The panel’s chairman, Justice Anthony Akpovi, specifically directed INEC to organize the supplementary election within 90 days. Additionally, the tribunal ruled that the PDP and its candidate should be excluded from participating in the supplementary election.
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