By Vincent Ujumadu

Awka—THE Anambra State House of Assembly has passed a resolution calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct Anambra Central Senatorial re-run election without further delay to give the people of the zone a voice in the country’s upper legislative house.

The legislators said during a plenary that there was no justification for the people of the zone to be denied their right of having a representative in the Senate, arguing that with the Supreme Court decision on the matter, there were no more impediments towards conducting the exercise.

The motion for the conduct of the re-run election was moved by member representing Onitsha North 1 constituency, Mr. Chigbo Enwezor, and was seconded by the member representing Anambra East constituency, Mr. Obinna Emenaka.

INEC

Speaking on the motion, Enwezor said the people of Anambra Central were facing neglect and undue sabotage with their seat remaining vacant in the Senate where laws governing the sharing of the nation’s commonwealth were made.

According to him, the situation was no longer funny as it would soon be two years in the life of the present Senate, yet Anambra Central had no senator since the removal of Mrs. Uche Ekwunife from the seat in December 2015.

In his contribution, Emenaka said there was need to conduct the election as matters concerning the state could not be effectively pushed by just two senators in a Senate where every state was represented.

Vanguard recalls that the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu had sacked Ekwunife, who was declared winner by INEC after the election, from the Senate on the ground that she was not validly nominated by her party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The Court of Appeal subsequently ordered for a rerun and barred the PDP from presenting a candidate in the rerun.  Ekwunife later approached the Supreme Court, which also dismissed her case.

Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, who was the candidate All Progressives Congress, APC, in the election, had since declined to participate in the rerun due to his ministerial position and an attempt by his party to substitute him was rejected by INEC on the ground that nomination of candidates had since elapsed.

Though Ngige attributed the non-conduct of the election to pending litigations, the candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh argued that the Supreme Court judgment of 10th  January, 2017 had settled all the legal issues, adding that there was nothing stopping INEC from fixing a date for the election.

Umeh urged INEC to go ahead with the election and shut out all persons who were not part of the previous election and accused both the PDP and APC of conspiracy to stop the conduct of the election, after having been barred from presenting fresh candidates for the election.