Senator and former governor of Enugu State Chimaroke Nnamani bid to return to the Nigerian Senate was set back today by the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal (NAEPT) sitting in Enugu which threw out his petition against the victory of Senator Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party in the February 25 parliamentary election.
Chimaroke went to the tribunal contending that the election at Enugu East senatorial district on the national election day was marred by gross irregularities and overvoting and prayed the court to declare him the winner of the election based on valid votes cast or in the alternative order a rerun.
Justice Nusirat I. Umar led three-man panel of judges concluded Mr Chimaroke’s petition was vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic and seemed to indulge in mere academic exercise. It upheld the victory of Senator Chukwu who according to official tallies polled 69,000 votes against Chimaroke’s 49,000.
The judges further awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioner in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, Labour Party and INEC.
Chimaroke – a former governor of Enugu State [1999-2007] and senator [2019-2023] ran under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but fell out with his party for his support for President Bola Tinubu who contested the presidential election under a different party – All Progressive Congress (APC). Both presidential and legislative elections were held on the same day.
Kelvin Chukwu – just fresh from college – was hurriedly nominated to replace his elder brother and candidate of LP in the election, Oyibo Chukwu, who was gruesomely murdered along six others in the lead-up to the election.
It was thought the motives for the attack may have been political.
The newbie, Kelvin Chukwu’s victory could have been helped by the political tsunami of the #Obidient Movement supporting the LP presidential candidate Peter Obi which swept across much of the southern and middle belt regions of Nigeria then.
According to Nigeria’s electoral laws, Mr Chimaroke could still appeal the tribunal’s ruling at the Federal Court of Appeal, which has final judicial say over parliamentary elections.
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