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INEC Fixes Date For Anambra Central Senatorial Election After Two Years

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed January 13, 2018, to conduct the re-run election for the Anambra Central Senatorial district. Advertisement INEC National … Continue reading INEC Fixes Date For Anambra Central Senatorial Election After Two Years


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A file photo of a ballot box.

INEC Fixes Date For Anambra Central Senatorial Re-run Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed January 13, 2018, to conduct the re-run election for the Anambra Central Senatorial district.

INEC National Commission, Mr Solomon Soyebi, revealed this to Channels Television on Thursday during his appearance on Politics Today.

He said the decision to conduct the re-run election in the state was contained in a statement signed by an INEC National Commissioner and member of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Mohammed Haruna.

The Anambra Central Senatorial seat became vacant in December 2015 after a Court of Appeal in Enugu nullified the election of Uche Ekwunife, who contested under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

After the Independent National Electoral Commission declared her victorious at the March 28 poll, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance Victor Umeh, filed a petition before the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Awka, challenging her victory.

In October 2015, Justice Naiyi Aganaba, upheld her election, declaring that Umeh failed to prove that Ekwunife was wrongly declared the winner of the election by INEC.

Again, Umeh challenged the verdict, at the Appeal Court, gaining some reprieve as the court nullified Ekwunife’s election on December 6, 2015.

In nullifying the election, Justice A.H. Yahya ruled that the election of Ekwunife, who had started serving as a Senator at the time, did not meet the provisions of the Electoral Act.

The judge also ordered that a fresh election should be conducted for the senatorial district within 90 days.

That, however, did not happen as Senator Ekwunife took her case to the Supreme Court.

With the legal issues surrounding her election lingering, Ekwunife defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress on January 8, 2016.

On February 10, 2017, the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal, saying it did not have the jurisdiction to hear disputes from National Assembly elections.

Nine months after, on November 20, 2017, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja delivered a judgment in which it orders INEC to conduct the re-run election within 90 days of the judgement.

Following the determination of the case, the electoral body observed that all hindrances to the conduct of the re-run election have been removed while there was no court order restraining it from conducting the election.

“The commission has considered all the circumstances surrounding the election, particularly the 90-day timeframe ordered by the Court of Appeal; the demands for preparing adequately for the election, as well as the coming yuletide and decided that the rerun election shall take place on Saturday, January 13, 2018,” the statement said.