It turned out to be another sad day for not just people of Okigwe Zone but entire Imo State as newly elected Senators across the country were officially admitted into the Red Chamber of the National Assembly.
It would be recalled that after several delays, bye elections were held to fill vacant positions for the upper and lower legislative arms of the National Assembly on Saturday, December 5, 2020.
Among the senatorial districts were the elections were held was Imo North (Okigwe Zone). While others produced candidates as winners, the one held in Imo didn’t with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC declaring the party only as winner.
On the floor of the Senate chamber on Tuesday, no one from Okigwe Zone was sworn in to join others thereby making the senatorial district not to have a representative a year after the death of their former Senator, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu.
Uwajumogu died late last year and the process to find his replacement has dragged for a year with no named person to occupy the vacant position his exit created.
Trumpeta notes that after the December 5th election, INEC pronounced APC winners without naming a candidate.
According to the electoral body in a statement made latter, it was as a result of court judgments made before the court which didn’t give authority to anyone to be named a candidate of the winning party, the APC.
INEC also said that no pronouncement stopped the name of APC and logo from not being displayed on the ballot papers for it to declare a candidate of another party winner. The electoral body said that it is waiting on further court pronouncements on the matter before a candidate will be declared winner.
The new Senators include Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East), Senator Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West), Senator Cleopas Moses (Bayelsa Central) and Senator Nora Ladi Dadu’ut (Plateau South).
The Clerk to the Senate, Ibrahim El-Ladan administered the Oath of Office and Oath of Allegiance on the new Senators.
