Former Abia State governor and senatorial candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the March 5, Abia North rerun election, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has filed a petition before the newly-constituted National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Umuahia, the Abia State capital. Kalu hinged his petition on the massive electoral irregularities that robbed him of victory in that poll. Kalu’s legal team, comprising of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), is led by Mr. K. C. Nwufor (SAN).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier on March 6 declared the rerun inconclusive, only to return in the afternoon to make a volte-face by announcing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Mao Ohuabunwa,winner of the poll to the chagrin of other parties that participated in the election and even observers. A statement issued yesterday by Kalu’s Media Adviser, Mr. Ebere Wabara, said the massive malpractices, which characterised the election, was obvious to prove that some of the electoral officials were compromised beyond doubt.
According to Wabara, “what the PDP wanted was to drag Dr. Kalu into an orgy of violence that would have been greater than the Rivers State episode, but Kalu abhors blood-letting and cannot waste the lives of his supporters and other Nigerians because of primitive politics that is second nature to his vanishing clan of opponents.”
He added that if not for the intervention of Kalu’s chief campaign officer, Hon. Charles Ama, supporters of the former governor would have inflamed the entire district, particularly Ohafia, the PPA candidate’s critical base, where opposition forces who disguised as thugs, shot indiscriminately into the air and ensured that there was scandalously unprecedented disenfranchisement of the electorate.
“It is regrettable and unfortunate that Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku, a card-carrying member of PDP, should also be the INEC overriding authority on the Abia North rerun, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and propriety which forbid such a scam,” Wabara said.
It would be recalled that Kalu was rigged out of the 2011, 2015 and 2016 senatorial polls. Kalu has, this time, vowed not to allow this swindle to become a permanent feature in Abia State by approaching the tribunal to rectify the latest anomaly by calling the perpetrators to order and enthroning political accountability.
