The tribunal directed that the PDP and its candidate, Rep. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, be excluded from the supplementary election it ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct within ninety (90) days.
The Imo State National and State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Mararaba, Nassarawa State, has sacked Rep. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as the member representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State in the House of Representatives.
Ugochinyere was elected to the National Assembly on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and was recently appointed as Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream).
However, in a landmark decision on Sunday, the three-member panel of the tribunal held that the PDP did not validly nominate Ugochinyere to contest the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency election that was held on February 25 2023. Consequently, it ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to within ninety (90) days, conduct a supplementary election in the constituency
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The tribunal, in its lead judgment delivered by its Chairman, Justice Anthony Olotu Akpovi, specifically directed INEC to conduct fresh supplementary polls in fifty-five (55) polling units where elections were not held on February 25, 2023. It further directed that the PDP and its candidate be excluded from the supplementary election.
The tribunal’s verdict follows a petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abazu Chika Benson, on the grounds that the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which produced Ugochinyere as a candidate, was invalid.
