…Orders refund of earned allowances to NASS

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

Justice Okon Abang of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has ordered two House of Representatives members from Enugu State to vacate their seats.
They are Stella Ngwu representing Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency and Dennis Nnmachi Agbo from Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, respectively.
Justice Abang consequently declared Dr. Gabriel A. Okafor as the rightful winner of Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency seat election and also ruled that  Chijioke H. Ugwu won the Egbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, Enugu State in 2015.
Delivering judgment on the pre-election case, Justice Abang ordered the sacked lawmakers to refund to the coffers of the National Assembly of Nigeria forthwith, all monies collected by way of salaries, allowances since they took the seats in the House.
The case emanated from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election of December 2014. The PDP and its National Working Committee (NWC) are the 1st and 2nd defendants, while the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) is the 3rd defendant and Ngwu and Agbo are 4th defendants in the two separate suits.
It was the position of the court that the PDP and its NWC had no right nor authority to use any delegate list for the election for its candidate for Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani and Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituencies, respectively, other than the list of delegates that emerged in its congresses held on November 1, 2014.
“It is, hereby, declared that the fourth defendant did not emerge as winner from the primary election conducted for the purpose of electing the House of Representatives’ candidate of the first defendant for Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency for 2015 general elections since the primary election that purportedly produced her as winner was not conducted based on the list of delegates that emerged from ward congresses of the 1st defendant held on November 1, 2014.
“It is hereby, declared that the plaintiff, Okafor won PDP’s party primary election on December 6, 2014 for Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency election into the House of Representatives.”
Justice Abang also “declared that the fourth defendant did not emerge as a winner from the primary election conducted for the purpose of electing the House of Representatives’ candidate of the 1st defendant for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency for 2015 general elections since the primary election that purportedly produced her as winner was not conducted based on the list of delegates that emerged from ward congresses of the 1st defendant held on 1st November, 2014.”
The judge further ordered INEC to immediately issue certificate of return to Dr. Gabriel Okafor and  Chijioke Ugwu.
He also awarded N100, 000 against the defendants in favour of the plaintiff.