By Charles Onyekamuo in Awka
Following the lull in campaigns by candidates of parties in the now indefinitely postponed Anambra Central Senatorial election, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the re-run election which was initially scheduled for March 5, Chief Victor Umeh has said that the candidates of eligible parties were waiting for the outcome of the appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) challenging the judgment of an Abuja High court ordering it to include the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the re-run.
The court of Appeal in Enugu had on December 7, 2015 ordered a re-run in the Anambra central senatorial district within 90 days after nullifying the victory of the PDP candidate in the March 28, 2015 National Assembly election, Hon (Mrs.) Uche Ekwunife.
The nullification was sequel to an appeal brought by the APGA candidate in the election, Chief Victor Umeh after the Tribunal of first instance that sat in Awka dismissed his petition.
But about a week to the election fixed for March 5, this year, an Abuja High Court ordered that the INEC should include the PDP and its candidate in the election following a suit filed by the PDP.
The INEC however appealed the decision of the Abuja High Court saying it was in defiance of the Supreme Court decision to the effect that when there is a re-run, only those candidates who participated abinitio are eligible to contest.
Umeh in an interview with THISDAY in Awka said they were waiting for the outcome of the INEC appeal which would soon be delivered and that he also appealed as an interested party.
The former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, who it was alleged masterminded the suit against the INEC irking Umeh to state that he could not continue to play pranks for a long time.
“There is time to play pranks and time to exhaust same. Soon the court of appeal will deliver judgment in the appeal filed by the INEC challenging the judgment of the Abuja High Court in defiance of a plethora of Supreme Court decisions that only those who contested the original election are eligible.
“I appealed as an interested party. We cannot go with people who are not supposed to be part of it. It is an established law by the Supreme Court. So what the INEC is trying to do is to remove the impostors”, he said.
He expressed regrets that those who benefited from the rule of law now wanted to circumvent it.
“If you ambush the law, it will take a revenge on you and anybody who knows what the law says and ambush it will find himself to blame’, he said, adding that the INEC was not sitting idly but following what the law says.
