Election Tribunal sitting in Abakaliki the capital of Ebonyi state, has declared the All Progressives Congress party contestant, Comrade Chinedu Ogah, winner of the February 23, 2019 national assembly election.
In his judgement, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Sika Henry, declared Ogah winner, stating that from evidences presented before the Tribunal to back up his claim, he scored 36,238 votes in the election while Hon. Laz Ogbee of the Peoples Democratic Party scored 33,263.
The tribunal ordered INEC to immediately withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ogbee and give it to Ogah.
“It is the first respondent that won the majority of the lawful votes in Ezza south. The total number of votes scored by the petitioner(APC) and first respondent(Ogbe) for Ezza south/ Ikwo federal constituency is tabulated as follows; Ezza south LGA APC 8, 311, PDP 17,139. Ikwo LGA APC 27, 927 PDP 16, 127. The total votes for APC is 36, 238 . The total votes for PDP 33,316 votes” the chairman stated.
In his reaction, Mr Roy O.U. Nweze, counsel to 2nd respondent (I.e. PDP) accused the Tribunal chairman of being biased, stating he wasn’t surprised about the judgement.
He accused the Chairman of being hostile and refused to look at issues presented, stating he was in a hurry to deliver judgement.
“I want to say that I am not all together disappointed with the judgment because I expected that it will be this way. We will start drafting the notice of our appeal today” he noted.
On his part, counsel to the petitioner, Tofa Mba Okweni, SAN stated, “We looked at the entire result of the election when we reviewed the whole thing and found out that the polling unit results which form the basis of the election were not what were collected at the ward level and we filed our petition challenging the result declared by INEC on the grounds that they did not collate the proper result of the election.
“What they collated did not reflect the outcome of the election at the polling units. We then asked the tribunal which has power to do by the electoral act to recompute the result of the election based on the outcome of the election at the polling units”.
While comrade Ogah stated: ” I feel happy over the judgment. It showcased that the mandate of the masses has been restored. This has shown what the tribunal can do. They really looked in the eye of the masses. They have seen that the masses voted for the APC.”
