As the dust over the Okigwe bye Election, settles, the Imo Awareness Coalition, IAC, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has lost the power to declare either Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, or Frank Ibezim, winner of the December 5, 2020 Okigwe Senate Bye Election.
Speaking to INNONEWS in Owerri, spokesman of the Coalition, Fidelis Echendu said INEC having declared that the APC won the election, without declaring a candidate of the party who won the election has been “divested” of the authority to make another pronouncement on the matter.
He said records show that INEC can only make one pronouncement after an election, which is to announce a candidate and political party, which won an election.
He said ” Other matters which arise over INEC’s proclamation shortly after an election, shifts to the court, particularly the Election Petition Tribunal, not to the regular courts.
“This means the people of Okigwe zone will have to wait for a long period before they will get a representative at the senate, because there are court judgements prior to the election which has to move to other layers of the Judiciary.
“The legal tussle ahead over the Okigwe election will take some time, and from the look of things, it is the Supreme Court that will decide who eventually won the Okigwe bye election. In other words, we may have a Senator in Imo State declared by the Supreme Court, the same way we we had a Governor installed by the nation’s apex court.
