JANUARY 13, 2018 ANAMBRA CENTRAL SENATORIAL ELECTION SACROSANT: INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured the people of Anambra State that the Anambra Central Senatorial re-run election scheduled for 13 January, 2018 must hold.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji who gave the assurance in an interview with newsmen in Awka that the legal debacle hindering the election from holding had been resolved.

He said its legal Department had studied the judgment and asked it to go ahead with the election as ordered by the Court of Appeal as against Justice Tsoho of the Federal High Court judgment.

Anambra Central Senatorial District had been without a Senator since 2015 when a Court of Appeal, Enugu Division asked the occupant of the position, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, to vacate the seat.

The court asked INEC to conduct a re-run in the district within 90 days while disqualifying Mrs. Ekwunife and her political party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from participating in the re-run.

However, on December 13 last year, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declared Dr. Obiora Okonkwo of the PDP as Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in a judgment delivered by Justice John Tsoho.

The judgment had stirred up debate among interest groups on which of the conflicting court judgments to obey, before INEC decided to obey that of the superior court, the Appeal Court.

KEVIN EKEDIEGWU