Posted by By Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka on
The Second Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal yesterday nullified the April 2007 House of Assembly election in the two constituencies of Ogbaru Local Government Area.
The Second Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal yesterday nullified the April 2007 House of Assembly election in the two constituencies of Ogbaru Local Government Area.
The tribunal sacked the Majority Leader of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Njideka Ezeigwe, representing Ogbaru 1 and Mrs. Chinwe Nwaebili of Ogbaru II State Constituencies.
Delivering a unanimous judgment, the chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Bako ordered for fresh elections in the two constituencies.
In the petition brought by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the April 14, 2007 election, Ifeanyi Anthony Ikechukwu, against Hon. Ezeigwe, the tribunal held that the petitioner proved his case beyond all reasonable doubt, that election in the constituency was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2006.
This it said showed in the non-display of the list of voters' list of adhoc staff, unavailability of result sheets, accompanying the electoral materials, non-counting of votes and failure to announce the results of the elections at both the polling units and collation centre.
Also, the tribunal held that the election was conducted without result sheets which according to it were a major ingredient to the election, noting that as a result, violence erupted.
It declared that as a result of the violence, election could not hold and wondered how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) manufactured results of an election that never took place.
Reacting to the judgment, both petitioners described the judgment as a landmark, and assured that the party would sweep the poll at the fresh exercise.
But in her reaction, Ezeigwe expressed the possibility of appealing against the judgment after consulting with her lawyers.
In a similar manner, the tribunal nullified the election of Hon. Nwaebili after upholding the petition of the APGA candidate, Tony Okwesa.