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By Godwin Chukwumaechi
The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has commended the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal for affirming the election of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu,
The ruling which was delivered on Friday by the Appellate Court, which is the final court of adjudication on all legislative election matters in Nigeria, puts paid to the “sponsored ambushment of a mandate freely given by the people of Bende Federal Constituency on the 25th February 2023,” NDRA said in a reaction made available to this newspaper on Saturday.
The group had earlier accused fifth columnists of impersonating the candidate of the Action Alliance in the 2023 National Assembly election, “to surreptitiously” sponsor a petition at National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State against the Deputy Speaker.
The court of first instance, the National & State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, headed by Justice Sampson Gane, in a unanimous judgement, threw away the petition which claimed the AA party logo was excluded from the ballot papers.
“The NDRA is forced to join issues by way of educating those who hatched the failed plot of denying Abia State and the Niger Delta region the services of a refined lawmaker as enemies of Ndi Abia.
“We point them again to the letters of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended); as we believe their plot was ill-choreographed.
“We thank their lordships, for seeing through the veil of an obfuscated attempt at deceiving the courts that a petitioner existed in the Kalu case.
“We praise both layers of the court for refusing to be manipulated into awarding victory to a party without a candidate or surrendering the corrupt and inept machinations of the secretary of the Abia State Tribunal (Mr Bello Hassan), who turned himself into a court within the court by attempting to adjudicate upon the decision of the three-man panel of the court.
“Thus, we believe that such officers in our judicial system, must have to be fished out and punished by the National Judicial Council”, NDRA said in a statement signed by its national chairman, Hon. Bright Ngolo.
NDRA called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to investigate “all financial transactions made by Mr Bello Hassan within the election petitions window, his hotel accommodation and movements to confirm our call for his investigation and subsequent prosecution.
“We invite Nigerians not to deter in monitoring the activities going on in the judiciary and speak up inorder to dissuade lawleslessness, resort to self help and rascality in the name of a democracy,” Ngolo said.
