Should the current tempo of the outcome of the Bye-election for Okigwe zone continues, the likelihood of the Supreme Court deciding the actual winner of the election is imminent even as the leadership of the winning party, APC, is yet to open up on the identity of the successful candidate.
Based on the declaration of the APC as the winner without name of the candidate, contestants involved in the battle are likely to continue court processes until it gets to the Supreme Court for final judgment.
Trumpeta notes that while two of the court cases are at Appeal and Federal Court stages, at the moment, the tendency for it to reach Supreme Court for final judgment is high.
In one of the cases where the High Court sacked Frank Ibezim for Ifeanyi Araraume to be included on the list of candidates in the ballot, the Appeal Court removed Araraume 24 hours to the election while a Federal High Court in Abuja said Ibezim wasn’t qualified to run for the election.
Trumpeta was informed that the parties involved are approaching the higher courts to seek further judgments while the PDP candidate, Emma Okewulonu has consulted his counsel to seek for Order of Mandamus that will compel INEC issue him Certificate of Return as the one who stood for election and highest number of votes against that of APC which had no candidate.
Meanwhile, it appears the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, has maintained incriminating silence concerning the outcome of the Okigwe zone Senate election conducted on 5th December, 2020.
Barely 24 hours after INEC announced the results which declared APC winner without a candidate, the party which held a national meeting at the state House, Abuja, failed to issue a statement or react on the matter. The inability to issue a statement is unexpected of a political party that was declared a winner of a contest.
Expectations were high from members of the party that the National Caretaker Committee would either issue a statement or make its positions known on the matter.
After extending the tenure of the Caretaker Committee for another six months, it dissolved all the party’s structure from ward to LGA and state levels without discussing the outcome of Okigwe zone election.
Trumpeta recalls that a day to the election, two court judgments stopped their two frontline candidates Ifeanyi Araraume and Frank Ibezim forcing INEC not to announce name of the winner other than that of the party while reeling out results.
