A non governmental organisation under the aegis of Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has hailed the decision of an Appeal Court in Lagos, for delivering a ruling in favour of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, over his victory at the just concluded general election.
The deputy speaker who is representing Bende federal Constituency in Abia state, has been in court over his victory at the February 25, 2023 election.
The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia had previously struck out the AA’s petition against Kalu in August.
The decision was based on the fact that the party’s candidate, Ifeanyi Igbokwe, denied filing any suit against Kalu and claimed that he was impersonated.
Igbokwe subsequently reported the impersonation to the police and the Department of the State Service (DSS), calling for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.
In a ruling delivered on Friday October 19, the appeal court dismissed the matter, describing it as an “academic exercise.”
The court also said that the time limit specified by Section 285 of the Constitution for the appeal had expired, thus lacking the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
In a statement signed at the weekend, by the NDRA National Chairman, Bright Ngolo, recalled that “our organisation had raised alarm over the activities of fifth columnists who had impersonated the candidate of the Action Alliance in that election to surreptitiously sponsor a petition at National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia state against the Deputy Speaker.
“The Court of first instance (National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal) headed by Justice Sampson Gane, in a unanimous judgement, threw away the petition which claimed the AA party logo was excluded from the ballot papers”.
Ngolo said “NDRA is forced to join issues by way of educating those who hatched the failed plot of denying Abia State and the Niger Delta region the services of a refined lawmaker view as enemies of Ndi Abia. We point them again to the letters of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended); as we believe their plot was ill-choreographed”.
The group however, thanked the panel of judges that presided over the case, “for seeing through the veil of an obfuscated attempt at deceiving the Courts that a petitioner existed in the Kalu case.
“We praise both lawyers of the Court for refusing to be manipulated into awarding victory to a party without a candidate or surrendering to the corrupt practices”.
The NDRA urged Nigerians not to deter in monitoring the activities going on in the judiciary and speak up inorder to dissuade lawlessness, resort to self help and rascality in the name of a democracy.