Despite Court Order, Senator Ararume May Not Be Given Certificate Of Return

A federal high court has ordered that the independent national electoral commission (INEC) to issue the certificate of return to Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as the winner of the imo north senatorial election that took place on December 5.

This news has been widely celebrated, and the camp of senator Ararume has been thrown into massive celebration, but if one will take a deep look at the situation, the INEC might not answer to this order for some reasons.

First of all, the ballot paper of the election had Frank Ibezim as the candidate of the APC, and not Ifeanyi Ararume, because he came second in the primary election, and has no claim to the candidacy of the party in the election.

Also, the supreme court had earlier ruled that Frank Ibezim is the candidate of the party after upholding the nullification of Ifeanyi Ararume as the party candidate, and in Nigeria, the supreme court is the apex court.

Although the federal court had earlier sacked Frank Ibezim because he has a pending case of certificate forgery , but that doesn’t rule out his victory as the candidate of the party in the election.

The court had ordered INEC to issue a certificate of return within 72 hours but looking at the many things connected to this, the commission might not obey the ruling from the lower court.

Meanwhile, this process has shown that the judicial system of the country is causing serious confusion in our governance. This issue should have been resolved long ago. Frank Ibezim is the only APC candidate that can lay claim to the candidacy, and he has a certificate forgery case, the next thing to do is hand over the victory to the next party with the highest vote which is the PDP and its candidate, Emmanuel Okewulonu

Written by Osho Oluwatosin