…calls for calm
Emeka Nnamani, member representing Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency, in the House of Representatives, has urged his constituents not to panic over the judgement of the election petition tribunal that annuled the victory during the 2023 general election.
Nnamani, while addressing a press conference in Aba, Wednesday urged his constituents and supporters to remain calm, as he remains their representive in the Federal House, until the final part of the judgement.
He stressed that he was sure to retain his seat, to continue to serve Aba at the National Assembly.
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The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital, led by Adeyinka Aderibigbe, a justice, on Monday, sacked Nnamani, who is a member of the Labour Party and ordered that a certificate of return be issued to Alex Ikwechegh, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who came second in the election.
Recall that in 2015, the Appeal Court on the petition of Blessing Nwagba, sacked Nnamani on the ground that he was not a registered member of his then party, APGA in his ward at the time of the election and equally directed the Police to investigate the allegation of certificate forgery against Nnamani, who said he graduated from the University of Port Harcourt.
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Since Monday after the Tribunal judgement, many media outlets have been reporting that the tribunal sacked Nnamani because of certificate forgery and that there was a court ruling banning him from participating in elections for 10years, a report the lawmaker has debunked and described as a “lie from the pit of hell.”
“There was nothing like the court banning me, Emeka Nnamani, for 10 years from contesting an election in Nigeria. That’s a fallacy and a fabrication from the pit of hell, used regularly by opposition parties to pull us back.
“The records of what the court said at that time in 2015 are there. I do not want to bring the competence of the court into question, because our jurisprudence is a perfect one and works according to the evidence available to them.
“As of 2015, there were lots of hiccups that my opponent took advantage of mentioning the institution they mentioned and the institution has since then said that they had issues with the exams and records of the school, which led to misplacement of some records, when they were moving from analogue to digital records keeping.
“There were cases of missing records and somebody went to that institution and took advantage of such a problem. But since then, the institution has cleared me,” he said.
Explaining further, Nnamani said that in the 2023 Tribunal, four petitions were brought against him and his party, the Labour Party.
“In the midway, APC and AA withdrew, which I’m grateful for, because they saw no reason to help in my distraction and the effect it would have on my constituency.
“The PDP and APGA decided to continue with the petition and in court, they brought quite a number of things ranging from the issue of election, areas where election didn’t hold.
“They also brought issues of INEC’s unpreparedness for the election, people they felt were disenfranchised and purportedly claimed that those people would have voted for them.
“The Court threw those issues away and upheld my election on that section. APGA also claimed that I participated in their primaries, which is not true, because I never knew when it took place.
“Again, they brought the 2015 case where the judges were misled thinking that I didn’t graduate from the institution they mentioned at that time of which I’ve been cleared.
“The court already has before it a report of police clearance on me that I didn’t have any case of forgery. We all know that for you to substantiate any case of forgery in the Nigerian Constitution, there has to be a police report.
“However in 2015, there was none. Rather the court requested that any party involved or any interested party has the liberty to go to the police and make a complaint and they also asked the police to investigate and possibly prosecute.
“That investigation has been done and police have cleared me and all these things were tendered in court.
“Unfortunately, this time around, the court insisted that the judgement that was given against me in 2015 came from the Appeal Court, which is a higher court and they as a lower court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain such a case.
“So, they simply referred us back to the same court that gave that 2015 judgement. However, I was shocked to read from the social media about false and wrong information portraying me as a person, who continues to present forged certificates.
“However, I want to also use this opportunity to say that I’ve never presented anything that’s forged. I never did such in 2015 and I never did now.”
He urged all his supporters and Aba electorate to remain calm, stressing that “soon, a court of competent jurisdiction will do justice to the issue. Let nobody panic, the court is there to protect the mandate of the people.”
