Mr. Kingdom Okere, counsel to
Precious Nwadike, of the United Progressives Party, (UPP) said his client is
seeking the arrest, investigation and prosecution of Imo Governor, Rochas
Okorocha, for alleged electoral malpractice.
Speaking to newsmen on Thursday
in Abuja, Okere said that his client was opposed to an application filed by
Okorocha concerning his senatorial election.
Okorocha filed a suit asking the
Federal High Court, Abuja to urge the Independent National Electoral
Commission, (INEC) to issue a certificate of return to him as the senator-elect
for the Orlu Senatorial District in Imo.
“We are here to vehemently
opposing the suit filed by Okorocha.
“We should be talking about the
police and security agencies arresting, investigating and prosecuting Okorocha
upon the expiration of his constitutionally allowed immunity as governor of Imo
for committing electoral offence.
“The electoral act is clear as to
what constitutes electoral offence; somebody held a returning officer hostage
at gun point and forced him to declare results in his favour and we are here
speaking grammar that they should give him certificate of return.
“So we, having been joined as the
sixth defendant.
“We will urge this court to make
a consequential order on the security agencies to immediately apprehend him on
the 29th of May and prosecute him for electoral offence.
“That is for holding a returning officer
hostage, telling him to declare him at gun point. This is not about certificate
of return but about the sanctity of our electoral system, “Okere said.
One of Okorocha’s counsels, Mr
Chibueze Nwanedo, however, said that the issue raised by Okere was for the
Election Petition Tribunal and not the court.
According to Nwanedo, we are here
to ask the court to urge INEC to do the needful, that is, to complete the
electoral process by issuing a certificate of return to the winner of Orlu
Senatorial District.
He maintained that after INEC
conducted the election, a winner was declared and yet they were withholding the
certificate.
He said that it was after INEC
had issued the certificate of return that anyone aggrieved could go to the
tribunal.
He also noted that the issue of
several parties seeking to join the suit was only an attempt to divert the
court’s attention from the main issue.
Earlier, Justice Taiwo Taiwo
granted the request of the candidate of KOWA party, Mr Nwachukwu Clement and
that of Labour Party, Mr Uche Onyioma to be joined in the suit filed by
Okorocha and ordered that all processes be served on them.
Clement and Onyioma were also
senatorial candidates in the National Assembly election of Feb. 23.
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