Kalu retains Senate seat, defeats PDP, Labour Party at tribunals

Senator Orji Kalu won the election for the Abia-North Senatorial district on February 25. This decision was affirmed by the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Umuahia.

The petition filed by Mao Ohuabunwa of the People’s Democratic Party and Nnamdi Iro-Orji of the Labour Party was unanimously rejected by a three-person panel headed by Justice Samson Paul-Gang on Tuesday because it lacked merit.

While confirming Kalu’s victory for the All Progressives Congress, APC, the court stated that his election met with the Electoral Act’s stipulations.

The tribunal judges also found issue with the petitioners’ claims that more than 120 polling places, primarily in the zone’s Ohafia and Arochukwu Local Government Areas, did not hold the election.

Iro-Orji and Ohuabunwa, who placed second and third in separate lawsuits, petitioned the court to nullify the former Abia Governor’s election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the grounds of anomalies.

The tribunal also dismissed the PDP and Labour Party’s petition, claiming that the total number of registered voters in the allegedly damaged polling units was much higher than Kalu’s margin of victory over the first and second runners-up.

Kalu’s eligibility to run for office was likewise upheld by the Court in its constitutional interpretation, which noted that the Supreme Court had overturned his prosecution and conviction.
The judges of the tribunal also interpreted and resolved two more Labour Party challenges to Kalu’s election, establishing Kalu as the legitimately elected Senator of Abia North.

With 30,805 votes, Kalu, who presently serves as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialization, was proclaimed the winner of the hotly contested senatorial election on February 25. He defeated Iro-Orji and Ohuabunwa, who received 27,540 and 15,175 votes, respectively.