Group Applauds Judgement On Deputy Speaker’s Election

The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has applauded the decision of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal for affirming the election of the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu.

NDRA, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by its national chairman, Hon. Bright Ngolo, said;

“The ruling delivered yesterday by the appellate court and final court of adjudication on all legislative election matters in Nigeria put paid to the sponsored ambush of a mandate freely given by the people of Bende federal Constituency on the 25th February 2023.

“Recall that our organisation had raised alarm over the activities of  fifth columnists who had impersonated the candidate of the Action Alliance in that election to surreptitiously sponsor a petition at National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State against the deputy speaker. 

“The court of first instance (National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal) headed by Justice Sampson Gane in a unanimous judgement, threw away the petition which claimed the AA party logo was excluded from the ballot papers.

“The NDRA is forced to join issues by way of educating those who hatched the failed plot of denying Abia State and the Niger Delta region the services of a refined lawmaker view as enemies of Ndi Abia. We point them again to the letters of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended); as we believe their plot was ill-choreographed!”