The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu, weekend, sacked the House of Representatives member representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency, Mr Chijioke Okereke. Okereke is of the Labour Party (LP).
The three-man panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar declared Chief Anayo Onwuegbu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the election held on February 25, 2023.
Onwuegbu, an engineer, had approached the tribunal challenging the victory of Okereke. Onwuegbu anchored his prayers on the grounds that Okereke’s name was not on the result sheet as the candidate of the Labour Party.
The panel, in the ruling, held that Okereke was not duly elected because it was not his name that was on the result sheet. The panel therefore directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a certificate of return to the PDP candidate.
It was gathered that it was the name of former minority leader of the House of Representatives, Mr Toby Okechukwu, that was on the list published by INEC for the election. Also, his name appeared on the result sheet and not that of Okereke.
Okechukwu had, before the election, disassociated himself from LP, paving the way for the emergence of Okereke, who approached a High Court sitting in Enugu where the court ruled in his favour to become the standard-bearer of Labour Party.
With his sack, he joins Prof Sunday Nnamchi representing Enugu-East/Isi-Uzo Federal Constituency, who was sacked on Thursday for wrong nomination.
Out of eight House of Representatives seats in Enugu State, LP won seven while PDP won one by in the last election.