Court Of Appeal Affirms Kalu As Senator, Defeats Ohuabunwa Again

By Akinwale Kasali

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s victory at the February 25th National Assembly Election has been affirmed by the Court of Appeal Lagos Division. The Court affirmed him as the duly elected Senator for Abia North  Senatorial District.

Mao Ohuabunwa of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had alleged disenfranchisement at the poll and challenged Kalu’s victory. But the Court of Appeal stated that Ohuabunwa failed woefully to prove the allegation of disenfranchisement.

Justice Abiri JCA of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal in his ruling said that the respondents proved that elections were held in all polling units and tendered form EC40G to explain why there was no voting in the affected polling units.

“The appellants did not plead the total number of people who picked up their voter registration cards.” “The appeal was dismissed with costs,” Abiri stated.

The Court, therefore, upheld the judgment of the National Assembly petitions Tribunal, Umuahia, which had earlier dismissed the petitions of Ohuabunwa and LP’s Iro-Orji for lacking merit.

The appellate court said the election of the former Abia State governor complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act. It also faulted the arguments of both petitioners that election did not hold in over 120 polling units mainly in Ohafia and Arochukwu Local Government Area.

The Court also set aside the prayers of Ohuabunwa to disqualify Kalu for having allegedly admitted before the Federal High Court that he was convicted of fraud.

It would be recalled that prior to the verdict of the Appeal Court on Kalu and Ohuabunwa’s case, Kalu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had also defeated Labour Party’s, LP, Iroh-Oji at the Court of Appeal to be affirmed as Senator.

Iron-Oji had approached the Court, urging and pleasing with it to nullify the election that brought Kalu in as Senator because the former Abia State Governor admitted to having been convicted.

Kalu was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, having scored 30,805 votes to defeat Iroh-Oji and Ohuabunwa who polled 27,540 and 15,175 votes respectively.