The battle for the actual winner of the Senatorial By-election for Imo North continued Monday morning, March 15, with the dismissal of a suit filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Frank Ibezim, at an Abuja High Court. The suit was meant to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue him with a Certificate of Return.
The seat became vacant when Senator Ben Uwajimogu, APC, passed on in 2020. During the by-election, the APC candidate, Ibezim, won. But it was a victory enmeshed in controversy, forcing INEC to declare the APC, as a party, winner, but without the name of the candidate who won.
INEC said it was left for the Court to decide the winner in the APC. The INEC decision stemmed from the fact that the APC had two candidates, both of whom contested – Ibezim and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume. It was the consequence of a division among those who screened both Ibezim and Ararume at the Primary. While a fraction declared Ibezim as the candidate, another declared Ararume winner, disqualifying Ibezim for alleged discrepancies in his educational certificate. He committed perjury, it was alleged.
Ibezim was backed by the Imo APC Government and the party structure. In a court action instituted by Ararume, he, (Ararume), was defeated upto the Supreme Court level. But it was not uhuru for Ibezim as a Federal High Court, also, disqualified him based on the alleged certificate forgery against him.
Moves by the PDP candidate, Emmanuel Okewulonu, who came second, to be given the Certificate of Return, based on the disqualification of both Ibezim and Ararume has not materialised. It is still a subject of litigation in the court.
On his part, Ibezim went to an Abuja High Court to compel INEC to issue him with a Certificate of Return, INEC having declared APC winner, and Ararume having lost in Courts to him.
It was the case that was thrown out this Monday by the Court. He probably forgot Okewulonu’s case in court, against him, for perjury.
The High Court sitting at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where Ibezim went to, presided over by Justice Danlami Senchi, struck out his case for lack of merit.
