The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Enugu State, Senator Ayogu Eze, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to include his name in the Saturday governorship election as directed by the Court of Appeal.
Briefing journalists in Enugu on Friday, Eze alleged that barely eight hours to the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission had yet to include his name in the race.
Eze alleged that the removal of his name from the INEC final list of governorship candidates for the election a few days before the election was a calculated attempt to punish him and create room for INEC’s preferred candidate and party.
He said: “Even after the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Federal High Court, which formed the basis for INEC’s action, the commission has bluntly refused to return my name to the final list on the INEC official portal 24 hours after they were served the order of the court.”
He wondered why INEC was taking an apparently partisan position on a matter where they would otherwise have been impartial.
According to Eze: “INEC is colluding with unknown forces to rob me of my victory on the Saturday March 9 election.”
He alleged that the whole plan was designed to discourage his supporters and deny him victory.
Eze said barely eight hours to the election his supporters were still confused whether they would participate in the election or not because of the development.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach Dr. Emeka Ononamadu, the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, for reaction failed as his mobile phone was unreachable and he did not respond to messages sent to him.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday ruled that Eze remains the authentic governorship candidate of the APC in Enugu State.
The court affirmed the APC gubernatorial candidate barely two days to the elections.
In his ruling on the substantive suit by Eze challenging his removal by a Federal High Court, the panel of judges, led by Justice Abdul Aboki, upheld the prayers of Eze in which he prayed that he was the duly elected candidate of the party.
The appellate court ruled that “what happened at the lower court was a miscarriage of justice as Mr. George Ogara has no case in the first place.”
The court stated: “Ogara filed after 14 days of the result being published as allowed by law, so the lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain his case.”
Justice Aboki directed INEC to immediately restore the name of Eze as the candidate of the party.
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