By Kenechukwu Madukaife
The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has been advised not to conduct rerun election in Anambra Central Senatorial District, as there are pending court cases on the matter.
Making the call are Senator Uche Ekwunife and Barrister Onyinyechi Okeke, who said until the cases were decided at the Supreme Court it will be hasty to conduct election in the senatorial zone.
The Court of Appeal on Monday ordered the INEC to conduct election in Anambra Central zone within 90 days.
The Anambra Central senatorial seat, which was won by Senator Ekwunife in 2015, was nullified by the Court of Appeal, with an order for a rerun election. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had gone to court to challenge the order excluding it from the rerun.
Speaking on the latest Court of Appeal order, Ekwunife said the pending cases have to be dispensed with before the Anambra Central election would be conducted.
She faulted the earlier Court of Appeal judgment nullifying her election, saying she had emerged from a primary election of the PDP, which also produced Senators Andy Ubah and Stella Oduah, whose elections were upheld by the courts.
The former lawmaker said it was unfair for the Appeal Court justices to singled her election out for cancellation, while others who also emerged from the same PDP primaries were upheld.
She said the Appeal Court was wrong in its judgment, as the Supreme Court had earlier decided that a member of another political party cannot challenge the outcome of another party’s primaries, which, according to her, was what Chief Victor Umeh’s case was about.
Ekwunife said she would continue to cry out as what the Appeal Court did was “pure injustice.”
Also asking the INEC to stay action on the Anambra Central election, Barr Okeke said some cases were still pending in various courts.
According to her, it would be unfair if INEC does not wait for the determination of the cases by the courts.
She listed the pending cases as Dr. Obiora Okonkwo versus the PDP, with suit number, FHC/ABJ/ 1092/2014, at the Federal High Court, Abuja; Comrade Anoyo Nweke versus INEC, with suit number FHC/AWK/CS/16/2016, at the Federal High Court, Awka and, PDP versus Sir Victor Umeh & others at the Supreme Court; and Umeh versus PDP, with suit number CA/A/60/2016 in Court of Appeal.
Others are INEC versus PDP, with suit number CA/A1165/2016 at the Appeal Court and All Progressives Congress and Anor versus INEC, with number CA/A/314/2017, also in Appeal Court.
Okeke said: “As is clearly evident from the listed cases, INEC is a named party in all the matters and would be directly bound by the decisions of the respective courts. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to preempt the decision of the courts in these cases by proceeding with any election prior to a final determination of these action. This would invariably result in a situation where INEC, through its conduct, will be foisting a Fait Accompli on the courts and rendering the court judgments nugatory.
“Consequently, in light of the foregoing, and given INEC’s constitutional responsibility to determine the timing and conduct of general elections, we hereby respectfully request that INEC hold off on scheduling any election in Anambra Central Senatorial District pending the determination of these lawsuits.
“To do otherwise would be to create a situation whereby INEC, an agency of the Federal Government, would be perceived as impugning the jurisdiction of the courts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by foisting a situation of helplessness on the courts.”