Tinubu's minister wins House of Reps election as tribunal sacks LP candidate

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia has nullified the election of Hon. Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party, representing Isuikwuato Umunneochi Federal Constituency, and declared Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha as the rightful winner.

It'd be recalled that Onyejeocha, who had represented the Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency since 2007, was recently appointed as the Minister of State for Labour and Employment by President Bola Tinubu.

However, in the ruling delivered by a three-member panel on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, the court held that, after recomputing the votes cast by polling unit by polling unit, Onyejeocha of the APC scored 11,936 while Ogah scored 9,738.

The tribunal, therefore, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the Labour Party candidate and re-issue the same to the petitioner.

“How a candidate is sponsored by a political party is both a pre and post-election matter, there is no evidence of giving 21 days’ notice to INEC by the respondent 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 affair of the party.

“We have tabulated and found out that the results computed by the petition are correct and the results computed by the 1st respondent are dis-countenanced,” the panel ruled.

Ogah had earlier argued that the decision of Onyejeocha to accept the ministerial appointment implied that she had abandoned her petition.

But, the tribunal, in its ruling, dismissed the submission of the Labour Party candidate.

“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 added.