A Federal High
Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State has disqualified the state House
of Assembly candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), for
Umuahia East state constituency, Chibueze Apugo from contesting the
April 26 elections.
The People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the seat, Chidiebere Nwoke, had
filed a suit for the disqualification of Mr Apugo based on alleged
falsification of age. The presiding judge, M.G. Umar held that the
defendant gave false information regarding his age in the form he
submitted to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the
election.
Falsified document
The judge noted
that Mr Apugo submitted conflicting age declarations to INEC, which did
not correspond with the period of time he was in school.
Mr Umar also
stated that the defendant filed an affidavit to correct the initial age
declaration which he claimed was done in error, adding that the said
affidavit was done after the court proceedings had commenced.
The court,
therefore, ordered that the APGA candidate stands disqualified from the
election on reasons of falsification of age, date of birth and periods
that he was in school.
The court, in
turn, struck out a suit filed by Mr Apugo asking for the
disqualification of Mr Nwoke from contesting the House of Assembly
elections for allegedly committing fraud against First Bank of Nigeria
Plc.
Acting on rumour
Mr Umar, in his
judgment, said the claim was mere suspicion devoid of substance, saying
no court or tribunal had tried or convicted the defendant for fraud.
Mr Nwoke hailed the
judgment and disclosed that his opponent first dragged him to court in
Abuja over an incident that happened in 1998, concerning the issuance
of a statement of account by the said bank.
He said he was left
with no other option than to dig into his opponent’s history, only to
discover the discrepancies in the particulars he submitted about
himself.
