From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the pending Anambra Central Senatorial District election, Chief Victor Umeh has insisted that nothing would stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting the court ordered rerun election for Anambra Central.
The former national chairman of APGA berated the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige for saying the election would not hold until all legal issues on it were determined.
Ngige had been quoted as saying that there was plethora of suits in the matter of the senatorial election and that the said rerun would not hold until those suits were over.
But Umeh wondered where Ngige got his authority to speak on a matter the Federal High Court and even the Supreme Court had determined. He warned him to face his job as a minister that should create job for the teeming unemployed Nigerians and stop trying to intimidate INEC with his federal might.
He said by the March 14, judgment of Justice Anuli Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which said no to nomination of fresh candidates for rerun election, INEC has nothing holding it from conducting the court ordered rerun election for Anambra Central.
Justice Chikere had, in the said judgment, which was the matter between Sharon Ikeazor and APC against INEC, held that “the time for nomination/withdrawal or substitution of candidates for the court ordered election in Anambra Central Senatorial District had elapsed. As decided by the Court of Appeal in the case of Labour Party vs INEC (2008)13 NWLR PT. 1103 PG. 73, there is no room for fresh candidates in a court ordered fresh election.
“This court is bound by the above decision of the Court of Appeal, and adopts same and holds that there is no room for fresh candidates in a court ordered fresh election.”
Umeh, therefore, described Ngige’s statement as an invitation to anarchy and challenged him to come to the poll as he (Ngige) was eligible to contest in the election having been a candidate in the first election.
“Ngige should not be talking about an election he voluntarily withdrew from. He should concentrate on his job by providing jobs for unemployed Nigerians. The issue of Anambra central rerun is not a labour related matter and he should not be running his mouth as if he has diarrhoea.”