A federal high court sitting in
Awka, Anambra State, has exonerated Prof. Meshach N Umenweke of any wrong doing
during the Anambra South senatorial election.
After Umenweke had declared
Ifeanyi Ubah winner of the election, one of the contestants, Chris Uba went to
court to contest that Ubah had forced the returning officer to declare him
(Ifeanyi) winner under duress.
Delivering his judgement on the
matter, Justice IB Gafai stated that Prof Umenweke has no case to answer and at
best would serve as principal prosecution witness in the matter.
He held that the court was not
dealing with a criminal trial, but to satisfy itself on whether there was a
prima facie ground to proceed to investigate the allegations of the applicant
or not.
He said: “What I can however
safely say categorically here, with all humility, arising from the facts is
that the 2nd Respondent Prof Umenweke, in fairness, may at best be a principal
prosecution witness on the combined facts.”
The judge held that the duty to
investigate and prosecute lies with the 1st respondent, INEC, and not the
Nigeria Police Force or any other investigative body as it seems to be
erroneously contended by the respondents that they have not been investigated
by the Police.
The court further asked the 1st
respondent to “within 14 days from day of the judgment to conduct or cause
investigation into the criminal allegations of the applicant”.
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