… *INEC REACTS

By Francis Ekeh

The crisis over who is the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Ideato South State Constituency in Imo state has come to an end as the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri has ruled that Hon. Chris Ogbu, who was the winner of the PDP primary but was later swapped by the party leadership, is the authentic candidate of the Party for the election.

Justice M. A. Onyetenu, in his judgment, described Hon. Nnenna Aladum as a usurper and busybody who was never elected as a PDP candidate but rather came last during the primary election.

The Court declared in clear terms that the candidate of PDP for Ideato South House of Assembly seat is Hon. Chris Ogbu and the now reversed swapping of his name with somebody who came last during the primary election was a criminal act and therefore barred INEC and PDP from continuing to recognize or have any dealings with the said Aladum as a candidate while ordering INEC to immediately begin to recognize Hon. Ogbu and accord him all rights and privileges of a candidate.

In arriving at the conclusion, the Court said the primaries won by Hon. Ogbu was monitored by INEC and did not use any good words for the leadership of the Party for unlawfully, illegally, and without good cause, swapping his name with that of another person who lost at the primaries. It concluded that there was no rerun or fresh primaries, and any such allusion by the PDP was a figment of the imagination of the persons who did that.

The court aligned with INEC’s position that there was no rerun, and neither did they monitor any other primary except the one that produced Chris Ogbu.

The Court further held that the primaries which produced Ogbu were held at the same date, time, and venue as all other primaries of the Party in Imo state, and anything which affected one would ordinarily affect the others.

In its reaction, INEC says it would obey the judgment describing it as a victory for the rule of law and credible elections. Counsel to INEC who spoke to newsmen said the judgment vindicated the Commission’s position that it monitored the primaries won by Chris Ogbu.