Abia Central: Appeal Court sacks Senator Nwogu

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA – The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, Tuesday, sacked Senator Nkechi Nwogu representing Abia Central Senatorial district, saying she was illegally nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to contest the April 9 general election.

Her sack was sequel to an appeal that was lodged before the appellate court by a former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Atuma, who maintained that the ousted lawmaker lied on oath when she filled in her nomination form that she is from Abia Central Senatorial District.

Mr Atuma told the court that contrary to what the Senator claimed in her form, she originally hails from Osisioma-Ngwa Local Government, an area he said falls under Abia South Senatorial District.

The plaintiff told the court that though he drew the attention of the PDP national leadership to the issue before the nomination process was perfected, yet, it went ahead and handed the Senatorial ticket to Nwogu.

Meanwhile, following his failure to persuade a Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the party from submitting the name of the embattled lawmaker as its candidate for the constituency, Atuma proceeded to the Appeal Court.

Specifically, he urged the court to determine whether by the combined provisions of Section 71 and 72 of the 1999 amended constitution, Osisioma-Ngwa local government area can fall under Abia south Senatorial District and Abia Central Senatorial District at the same time, regardless of the delineation exercise that was conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Besides, he pleaded the court to order that Nwogu (3rd defendant) was ineligible to aspire to be sponsored by the PDP (2nd defendant) to contest the 2011 general elections to represent Abia central senatorial district.

As well as, an order nullifying her nomination by the PDP to stand election on its platform “based on false information/declarations on oath submitted to the party”, just as he urged the appellate court to declare him winner of the party’s primary election held on January 6 since he had emerged 2nd in the said contest.

Though the High Court, presided by Justice Adamu Bello, declined to grant his prayers, however, the appeal court, validated his arguments.

In a judgment that was read by Justice Ejembi Eko , the appellate court said it was satisfied that the lawmaker is not from the district she is currently representing, stressing that in view of that, the election that brought her into office amounted to a nullity.

Nevertheless, the court noted that though it voided the candidacy, nomination and election of Senator Nwogu, however, it could not order the appellant, Atuma, to take over her vacant position since there was no evidence before the court indicating that he was the first runner-up in the said primary election that produced the sacked lawmaker.

Consequently, it yesterday stressed that the import of the judgment means that the PDP had no candidate in the April 9 general election in Abia Central Senatorial District, even as it awarded a cost of N100, 000.00 to the appellant.