After cycles of appeals, court judgments and counter judgments a winner finally emerged from the senatorial re-run election for Anambra Central senatorial district. The re-run election which took place on Saturday January 13, 2018 has been described as free, fair and peaceful.This was even as the turn-out of voters for the election was poor. Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance [APGA] Chief Victor Umeh polled 64,879 votes leaving 13 other contestants with less than a thousand votes each. He was thus returned him as winner of the re-run election.
It would be recalled that the Anambra Central senatorial seat had been vacant following the nullification of Senator Uche Ekwunife’s election. After the Mach 28, 2015 National Assembly polls, Ekwunife who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] was declared winner but her main contender, APGA’s Chief Victor Umeh who came second in the election challenged her victory at the Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal. The Tribunal led by Justice Nayai Aganaba affirmed Ekwunife’s election in its judgment on October 8, 2015.
Upon Umeh’s appeal however, the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal on December 7, 2015 voided Ekwunife’s election for not being “the product of a valid primary election and she was therefore not duly and legitimately nominated.” Ekwunife went back to the Appellate Court and requested for a review of the judgment. The Court of Appeal however stood by its earlier decision. Sequel to the judgment which directed a re-run election, INEC scheduled the Anambra Central re-run election for March 5, 2016 without a PDP candidate. Yet, PDP got an order from an Abuja High Court compelling INEC to include its candidate in the re-run, which contradicted the ruling of the Appeal Court. This prompted INEC to postpone the re-run indefinitely and thereafter appealed the Abuja High Court ruling.
Delivering judgment in the appeal, the three-member Appeal Court panel headed by Justice Tinuade Akomolafe Wilson gave the order in a judgment delivered on a suit brought before it by APGA and its candidate, Chief Victor Umeh, challenging the February 29, 2017 judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja wherein the trial judge, Justice Anwuli Chikere ordered the inclusion of PDP and its candidate Senator Uche Ekwunife in the scheduled re-run election for Anambra Central senatorial district. Besides setting aside the decision of the Federal High Court delivered on February 29, 2016 INEC was also ordered to conduct a fresh election within 90 days for the Anambra Central senatorial district with the participation of the appellant, Chief Victor Umeh of APGA.
In spite of the provision of Section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which made the Appeal Court the terminal point relating to legislative elections, Ekwunife headed to the Supreme Court where she finally lost out in the case. Dismissing the appeal brought before it to challenge the nullification of her election by the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court described her move as a flagrant abuse of court process and disobedience to the constitution. Justice Amina Augie who read the lead judgment said, “The Apex Court lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine Ekwunife’s appeal in the circumstance… no matter how cleverly it has been framed.”
While it is consoling that the tussle over the only outstanding case from the 2015 general elections is now over, it is a shame on political parties and politicians whose prayer for interlocutory injunctions caused this case to drag on for nearly three years. It is also a discredit to Nigerian judges who granted such prayers. One singular but painful consequence of this Anambra case is that the people of the senatorial zone suffered non-representation at the Senate throughout the period during which the case lasted at different courts. This is a lesson from which parties and politicians in other senatorial districts in the country should learn.
