Will Emmanuel Okewulonu Be Declared Winner Of Imo North Senatorial Election?

Imo North senatorial district has been without a representative for the past two years since the senator representing the zone died.

As the constitution says that if representative or an election dies, a bye-election is expected to be held in to determine who will replace him or her. The bye election is always conducted like a fresh election because it involves all interested political party.

In Imo north, a bye election was held on December 5, 2020 conducted by the Independent national electoral commission(INEC), and till now, the election is yet to provide a winner due to some issues connected to it.

The INEC declared the All progressive congress (APC) as winner of the election but didn’t return any candidate because the APC didn’t go into the election with an eligible candidate. Two APC Chieftains, Ifeanyi Ararume and Frank Ibezim paraded themselves as candidates of the party in the election, but both of them were sacked because by two different court judgments 24hours before the election.

As a result of this, there has been different court cases concerning this election, and after the tussle between APC on who the right candidate is, the supreme court declared that Frank Ibezim is the right candidate of the APC in the election.

On a normal day, the INEC would have given Frank Ibezim the certificate but because he has issues of certificate forgery, He was unable to be given the victory, and even after he went to the appeal court to fight it, He lost.

As it stands now, Frank Ibezim is sitting on a one-legged chair, His only hope is in the Supreme Court which might not even favor him, also, the supreme court judges have decided to put sittings on the APC case on hold till further notice.

Just few weeks ago, news reports had it that the tribunal will sit in April to make final judgments on who will be the winner of the election, and as it looks, PDP’s Emmanuel Okewulonu may be favoured because the judgment on his certificate forgery still stands, and of course, if the tribunal sits before supreme court sits on his own case, then PDP Is coasting to victory.

Written By Osho Oluwatosin