Chimaroke Nnamani, a former governor of Enugu state has been stopped from returning to the Senate, after losing the election to a less experienced candidate.
The man who truncated his bid to return to the National Assembly , suprisingly, entered the race barely a month ago, after his brother, Oyibo Chukwu who was supposed to contest the senatorial seat under the Labour Party, was brutally killed.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had postponed the senatorial election in Enugu East due to the incident, for the LP to replace the deceased with another candidate.
The former two time governor of the state, had following the postponement boasted that he will go ahead to win the election.
Nnamani said, “We welcome any opportunity for the Independent National Electoral Commission to postpone the Enugu East senatorial election.
“While we strongly condemn the senseless killing of the LP senatorial candidate and others by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, I deeply sympathise with all the bereaved, and urge the security operatives to fish out the perpetrators.
“Any suggestion that the deceased was favoured to win the election is ridiculous, to say the least.”
Kelvin Chukwu, the deceased brother, who entered the race , just few weeks ago has now been declared winner by INEC.
According to the electoral umpire, the LP candidate polled 69, 136 to beat Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored 48, 701 votes.
Senator Nnamani had worked against his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in the February 25 presidential election, pulling his weight behind Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, instead.
His decision to support the former Lagos state governor, and now the President-elect, Nnamani said is in agreement with his belief that power must shift to the South, aside the competence of Tinubu, which he said towers above other candidates.
The senator, the magazine recalled, ruled the state with an iron fist between 1999 and 2007, his eight year administration was also marred by thuggery and killing .
The political group he formed at the time, Ebeano, had been blamed for the violence and brutal murder of mostly political opponents that rocked his reign as governor,
The seasenator has, however, denied any culpability.
