Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, Governor of Abia State,
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Human rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo on Wednesday said the continued stay in office by Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu as Governor of Abia State is illegal.
He said the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja which nullified the nomination of Ikpeazu as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the 2015 Gubernatorial Election of Abia State and also his subsequent election as Governor of Abia State should stand.
Keyamo said the court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to Dr. Sampson Uchechukwu Ogah, who scored the second highest number of votes in the primaries that produced Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu.
“A thorough scrutiny of the judgment of the court will reveal that, contrary to widespread opinion that Dr. Sampson Uchechukwu Ogah’s case was that Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu presented forged tax papers to the Independent National Electoral Commission, his case was simply that Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu apparently rushed to pay all his backlog of taxes just before the elections, yet he swore to a false affidavit and supplied a false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission that he paid his taxes as at when due. It was based on this false information that the court nullified his candidature,” he said in his analysis of the happening in Abia State on Wednesday.
Keyamo said he had carefully listened to various arguments regarding the immediate issuance of a Certificate of Return to Ogah by the INEC in strict compliance with the judgment of the Court, adding that contrary to opinions expressed in certain quarters, there was no judicial decision or statutory provision preventing the INEC from complying immediately with the orders of the Federal High Court.
“The provision of Section 143(1) of the Electoral …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
