The House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abia State has received a petition seeking to oust the Speaker of the State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chikwendu Kanu, from office.
The petition was filed by the All Progressives Congress House of Assembly candidate for Isiala Ngwa South state constituency seat in the just-concluded election, Nnaemeka Otagburuagu.
The APC candidate, in the petition filed at the tribunal is challenging the declaration of Kalu, as winner of the March 9 State Assembly election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, in Isiala Ngwa south local government area of the state.
Otagburuagu claimed that the House of Assembly election held in Isiala Ngwa south constituency was marred by excessive malpractices ranging from alteration of the election results by the respondent(Speaker).
The petitioner also asked the tribunal to cancel and order a rerun of the March 9 House of Assembly election conducted in Isiala Ngwa South constituency pon the ground that the PDP connived with some electoral officers to manipulate the exercise in its favour.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Abia state, Ugochukwu Ogbonna, on Wednesday, accused the nation’s electoral umpire, the INEC of alleging aiding the Abia speaker, Chikwendu Kalu and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the state, to write results of the Isiala Ngwa South state constituency seat election.
According to him, “The state Assembly election conducted in Isiala Ngwa south is not a reflection of the people’s wish. We have evidences to bring before the tribunal that will drive the Speaker out of office.
“We have confidence in the election petition tribunal, because, they will restore chief Otagburuagu’s mandate which the people of Isiala ngwa South constituency gave him. The exercise was heavily rigged in the favour of the ruling party in the state, the PDP”.
In a related development, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Abia state, has boasted that it would emerge victorious, should any of the opposition gubernatorial candidates in the just concluded 2019 elections in the state drag the party (PDP) to the tribunal.
Johnson Onuigbo, the PDP chairman in the state, who spoke with reporters in Umuahia, urged the two main opposition parties to join hands with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to take Abia to the next level of infrastructural development.
