Appeal Court Sacks Senate Minority Whip, Declares PDP’s Akobundu as Abia Central Senator

*Dismisses Ayade’s appeal, upholds Jarigbe’s victory

Wale Igbintade

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has sacked Darlington Nwokocha of the Labour Party (LP) as senator representing Abia central.
The Appeal Court declared Augustine Akobundu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the February 25 National Assembly election.
The court also affirmed Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe of the PDP as the winner of the Cross River North Senatorial District election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Nwokocha as the winner of the election with a total of 92,116 votes. Akobundu came second with 41,477 votes.

Dissatisfied with the result, Akobundu, a former Minister of State for Defence, filed a petition before the election petition tribunal to upturn Nwokocha’s election.
His petition was, however, rejected by the tribunal in September.

Unfazed by the ruling, Akobundu, who was a former Organising Secretary of the PDP, went to the appellate court.
Yesterday, he was declared the winner of the Abia central senatorial district election.
In a statement, the PDP said Akobundu and Osita Ngwu of Enugu west “are the two senators of the PDP extractions from the South-east region at the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the court has affirmed Senator Jarigbe as the winner of the Cross River North Senatorial District election.
The court dismissed the appeal by former governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The court also awarded N500,000 against the former governor in favour of the incumbent senator.

Ayade lost the February 25 National Assembly election to the incumbent senator, Jarigbe.
The former governor who was in the Senate between 2011 and 2015, lost the election with 56,595 votes against Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 76,145 votes.

Dissatisfied with the result of the election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ayade had approached the Cross River State National Assembly Election Petitions sitting in Calabar.

But the tribunal, in September, declared Jarigbe as the winner of the senatorial poll and dismissed Ayade’s petition for lack of merit.
In the five-hour judgment, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice M. A. Sambo, said the petitioners (Ayade and APC) failed to prove their case substantially.

 He dismissed all their petitions, saying there was no credible evidence tendered before the court to prove that the elections were fraught with malpractices.
Jarigbe, a two-time member of the House of Representatives, was elected into the Senate through a by-election in September 2021 following the death of Dr. Rose Okoh.