Imo North Bye-Election: Sen Emma Nwaka Slams INEC For Declaring APC Winner

The former Senator who represented the good people of Abia North Senatorial District in the short-lived third republic and former Abia State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Sen Emmanuel Chiedoziem Nwaka has added his voice to the just concluded Imo North Senatorial District bye-election which took place days ago.

Senator Emma Nwaka described the declaration by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Imo North Senatorial District bye-election in favour of APC without having any known candidate as a gross anomaly, an aberration with no legs to stand in any court or tribunal.

“In the final analysis, I see Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) being the beneficiary of this INEC faux pas as it recognizes the PDP candidate uuand mentioned him as the runner up of the election”, he said.

Recall that 24 hours to the said election, a court of Appeal sitting in Owerri gave a judgement disqualifying Ifeanyi Ararume as All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate.

On the same day, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja also disqualified Frank Ibezim from contesting in the Imo North Senatorial District election. He was disqualified by the court for making a false statement or declaration in the documents and affidavit he submitted to the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Speaking further with our correspondent, he said “To be sure, our constitution never contemplated a situation where a political party could emerge as winner in an election; a political party is a platform, a vehicle candidates use to achieve their electoral aspirations.”

“Votes won by a candidate by extension are ascribed to the party which presented him as their candidate. But if a wrong candidate or a candidate who did not win in the primaries, was fielded by the party, the Tribunal upon determining who the rightful candidate was will credit him with the votes won by the illegitimate candidate. There exist a plethora of examples to buttress this position. In other words, the declaration must mention the name of the candidate presented by the party. Not to do so implies that the party did not have a candidate and couldn’t/did not participate in the election.”

“The only way anyone can successfully counter my position as adumbrated above is to convince us that it’s right and normal to hold and declare the result of an election first before the search for the winner begins; that will be like putting the carte before the horse.”