NASS election: Tribunal declares Okwu winner of Oju/Obi constituency

The National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi has declared Samson Okwu of the PDP as winner of the 2019 House of Representatives election for Oju/Obi federal constituency.

Also, the tribunal nullified the election of David Ogewu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) just as it ordered the Independent National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return earlier issued to Ogewu in error and issue a fresh one to Okwu.

The chairman of the tribunal, Justice A. A. Adeleye, in his ruling on the petition brought before him by the PDP’s Okwu against the election of Ogewu faulted the declaration of the later as duly winner of the exercise by INEC.

Adeleye explained that the returning officer was not supposed to declare Ogewu winner of the Oju/Obi House of Representatives election using only Oju results because results for Obi which had over 59,000 registered voters had not been released.

He said the step-by-step procedure spelt out for collation and declaration of results were not followed by the returning officer and added that the reason of apprehension given for declaration of Ogewu as winner was not backed by any evidence or proof beyond reasonable doubts.

The tribunal chairman averred that after the deduction of 252 votes which had no source from Ogewu’s 12,784 votes in Oju, he had 12,562 votes while Okwu had 6,637 votes in Oju, adding that records before the tribunal showed that Okwu had 7,543 votes in Obi while Ogewu had 874 votes.

He also said the allegation that the election was marred by irregularities was not proved as no PDP member nor thug was mentioned in connection with the disruption of elections.

He maintained that votes scored by Okwu in Oju and Obi was 14,300 while Ogewu had 13,306 in both Oju and Obi.

Adeleye therefore submitted that after the tribunal had used its powers to add up and subtract the various figures as allowed by law, came to the conclusion that the petitioner, Okwu should be declared winner and accordingly declared so.