Justice Abang Orders Hon. Stella Ngwu, Dennis Nnmachi Agbo to Vacate Seats

 

 

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered two House of Representatives members from Enugu State to va­cate their seats.

The lawmakers are Hon. Stella Ngwu from Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency and Hon. Dennis Nnmachi Agbo from Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.

In his judgment on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, on the pre-election matter from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) primary election held in December 2014, the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, held that the emergence of Ngwu and Agbo was unlawful.

Justice Abang directed the sacked legislators to refund to the National Assembly all mon­ies they collected as salaries, al­lowances during their stay in the House.

Abang declared Dr. Gabri­el Okafor as the rightful winner of Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Fed­eral Constituency seat election while Hon. Chijioke Ugwu won the Egbo-Eze North/Udenu Fed­eral Constituency of Enugu State.

The PDP and its Nation­al Working Committee (NWC) were the 1st and 2nd defendants, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was the 3rd defendant and Ngwu and Agbo were 4th defendants in the two separate suits.

The court declared that the PDP and its NWC had no right to use any delegates’ list for the election for its candidates in the two constituencies on November 1, 2014.

The Judge further ordered INEC to immediately issue Cer­tificates of Return to Okafor and Ugwu.

He awarded the sum of N100,000 as cost against the de­fendants in favour of the plaintiff.