9th National Assembly Leadership: Court Sacks Main Contender From House Of Reps

As the tussle for the leadership of the 9th National Assembly gets hotter, Chike Okafor, a contender for the office of the speaker and under the All Progressives Congress, has lost his seat.

Following a court order, Okafor, who represents Ehimembano/Ihitte Uboma/Obowo Federal Constituency lost his seat to Emeka Nwajuba of the Accord Party.

Okafor, however, remains a lawmaker-elect for the 9th assembly.

Nwajuba had been a member of the House of Representatives between 1999-2003.

He got his certificate of return for the outgoing 8th National Assembly yesterday in Abuja from the Independent National Electoral Commission.

While accepting the certificate, he commended INEC and the judiciary for retrieving his mandate.

He called on the APC leadership to consider the South East in the zoning of the speakership of the House of Representatives.

He stated that the party has made steady progress between 2015 and 2019 in the zone, he added that the zoning would lead to National stability, inclusiveness and consolidation.

INEC, while speaking on solving election disputes called on senior lawyer to re-examine the way at which they send junior lawyers to access sensitive election documents from it.

INEC Commissioner of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, while presenting the certificate of return to Nwajiuba stated that the commission is committed to obeying court orders.

“On our own part, we are committed to giving all the political parties that are in election petition process whatever documents they want so long as we have those documents.”

“We want to appeal to political parties, we want to appeal to lawyers engaged in election petition process to show leadership and show courage when dealing with issues around whether the Commission has obeyed a particular court order or whether the Commission has not obeyed a particular court order.”

“We are committed to obeying all court orders whether those court orders are in favour of the Commission or against the Commission. It is now left for the judiciary to use their interpretative powers to adjust on matters,”.

Okafor few weeks ago had declared his intention to run for the position of the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives.

While speaking on his decision he stated that it was borne out of the need for the Southeast geo-political zone to be rewarded for the victory of APC at the 2019 general election.