Federal High Court has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue certificate of return within 72 hours to Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as the winner of the IMO North By-election held on the 5th of December 2020.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo in a judgment held that INEC, having declared APC as the winner of the election, Senator Ararume who won the primary election but prevented from participating in the bye election as the candidate of the party is the winner of the election.
Recall that Justice Taiwo earlier dismissed the Preliminary Objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain Senator Ararume’s suit filed by the APC and Chukwuma Ibezim.
Justice Taiwo, who described the application as “an attempt to arrest the judgment,” dismissed it for lacking in merit.
Ararume had, through his counsel told Justice Taiwo Taiwo to invoke the judgments of a Federal High Court and that of an Appeal Court to disqualify Ibezim and declare him as the rightful candidate for APC.
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Our correspondent gathered that prior to the bye-election which was held on December 5, 2020, Ibezim and Araraume had fielded themselves as APC candidates.
