ABUJA — SENATOR Ikechukwu Abana (PDP, Anambra Central) has warned the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to guard against being cajoled into issuing a return certificate to Chief Ben Obi, his party rival in the last elections on the premise of last Wednesday’s Supreme Court judgment. Responding to a reports that he had been ousted from the Senate on the basis of the judgment, Senator Abana said the Supreme Court ruling on his application to halt proceedings of the second appeal tribunal was deliberately twisted to create mischief.
According to him, he had gone to the apex court to stop the second election tribunal from rehearing the case on the fact that the original tribunal headed by Justice Okechukwu Opene had concluded and written judgment on the case.
Besides, he said the judgment had become irrelevant after the second tribunal had forged ahead with the hearings and even given judgment. Affirming the continued relevance of his mandate, Senator Abana said:
“This case is not about my mandate but about the propriety of the second tribunal going ahead to hear a case that has already been heard, and judgment written on.”
Implying some mischief in the report that the judgment invalidated his presence in the Senate, Senator Abana called on INEC to guard itself against being cajoled into believing the misinterpretation of the ruling of the apex court.
“The judgment was wrongly reported and that is not the way of getting justice. I am calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission to guard itself against being intimidated by my opponent who is trying to use this inconclusive judgment to sneak into the Senate.”
“Our application at the supreme court was to stop the second tribunal from proceeding because the first tribunal had concluded hearing in my case and was set to deliver judgment. So that the Supreme Court said that they could not stop the tribunal from proceeding does not in any way confer victory to my opponent because we are still contending with the judgment of that second tribunal at the appeal court. That is not what they ruled,” he said.
Senator Abana, chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties had been dragged to the election petition tribunal by Chief Ben Obi over who of them was the PDP’s candidate in the last senatorial elections.
