Enugu House of Rep candidate appeals tribunal judgment
A candidate in the March 28 House of Representatives election in Enugu State, Chukwuemeka Mamah, has filed an appeal before the Appeal Court in Enugu seeking to upturn the verdict of the tribunal which returned his opponent as the winner of the election.
Mamah, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had petitioned the Enugu National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu, which upheld the election of Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.
The tribunal, presided by Justice Michael Edem had on October 9 ruled that the petitioner failed to prove that the card reader was the only means of accreditation of voters in the election.
Mamah, through his counsel Abel Ozioko, is contending that the tribunal erred in law when it wrongly placed the burden on the petitioners to prove that accreditation by card reader was the only means of verification of voters, explaining that it was never the submission of the petitioner.
He argued that the main complaint was that in the disputed areas where card readers failed, “there was no incident form accreditation by INEC, yet votes were recorded.”
Consequently, Mamah is asking the Appeal Court to declare him the winner of the March 28 election and order INEC to return him as the duly elected representative of Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency. Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, the 2015 presidential candidate of the KOWA Party, has called on women to hold Nigerian leaders accountable.
Sonaiya stated this in Abuja, at the inauguration of “The Voice of Women in Nigeria Leadership Initiative”.
She called on women to demand for new system of public conduct where the values of hard work and moral discipline are imbibed.
She urged women to come together and reorient themselves in order to move the nation forward, noting that until they demand that government and public office holders do the right thing, it will continue to be the same old story,” she said.