Ex Deputy Speaker, OZB Loses To PDP Reps Member Elect in Appeal Court -

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By Onyekachi Eze

The chances of the immediate past Deputy Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, and the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in the 2019 elections, Rt Hon Ugonna Ozuruigbo (OZB) to be sworn in as House of Representatives member for Nwangele/ Nkwerre/ Njaba/ Isu Federal Seat has hit the rock as a court of Appeal sitting in Owerri has ruled in favour of the PDP candidate, Kingsley Echendu.

It would be recalled that OZB had earlier been declared as the Reps member-elect by the INEC, but a court judgment delivered 2 weeks ago nullified his victory, and immediately ordered INEC to recognize and swear in the PDP’s Echendu being the 2nd runner up of the election.

However, with few days to the swearing in of the National Assembly members-elect across the country, OZB approached the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment delivered by the Election Petition Tribunal.

The Court of Appeal at the early hours of yesterday dashed OZB’s hope of becoming a Federal lawmaker by striking out the motion on notice and the stay of execution brought before it by Ozuruigbo.

The presiding judge in his ruling reaffirmed that Echendu of the PDP is the authentic winner of the February 23rd, 2018 election and should be inaugurated without further delay.

From the judgment, it could be said that Echendu will be among the Federal members-elect to be inaugurated into the 9th National Assembly, while OZB is out except the court rules otherwise.