The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the All Progressive Congress, APC, winner of Imo North Senatorial bye-election held on December 5, 2020.
Although the Commission announced APC as the winner of the poll, it, however, did not attach any candidate’s name to the result.
After rolling out the figures garnered by the 14 political parties that contested for vacant senatorial seat, the Returning Officer, Hakeem Adikum, said: “I hereby return the All Progressive Congress as the winner of the bye-election held in Imo North on Saturday, December 5, 2020.”
According to Adikum, APC won in five out of the six local government areas in the senatorial district, namely Okigwe, Onuimo, Isiala Mbano, Ehime Mbano, and Ihitte Uboma local government areas, while the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won in one local government area, Obowo.
Giving a very short explanation of INEC’s position in the exercise, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Professor Francis Chukwuemeka Ezeonu, said: “INEC was unable to return a candidate from the APC as winner, because of several court orders for and against Frank Ibezim and Ifeanyi Araraume.”
Prior to the bye-election, the APC has been engulfed in legal battles, over who the authentic candidate of the party for the polls was.
It would also be recalled that less than 24 hours to the bye-election, two court judgements were served on INEC.
While the one from the Appeal Court, Owerri, sacked Araraume as the APC candidate and upheld Ibezim as the authentic candidate, another valid order from Federal High Court, Abuja, sacked Ibezim for alleged certificate forgery.
An APC chieftain, who did not want his name in print, told Vanguard that he had no reason to fault the position of the electoral umpire.
“I have no good reason to fault the position of INEC. We had conflicting court judgments before the senatorial bye-election.
“The Court of Appeal, Owerri, sacked Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as candidate of the party, faulting an earlier judgement of the Federal High Court, Owerri, which nullified the candidacy of Mr Frank Ibezim.
“The two court judgements may have forced INEC not to declare any of the candidates in the APC, as the winner of the election.”
Meanwhile, official results announced by INEC for the election show that the APC polled a total of 36, 811 votes, while the PDP got 31,903 votes.
