The election of the member representing Sagbama-Ekeremor Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Fred Agbedi, has been nullified by the National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Bayelsa State.
According to The PUNCH, this was noted by the tribunal in a judgement given on Thursday in Yenagoa by Justice Sylvester Odili on the petition entitled EPT/BY/HR/01/2023, which was submitted by the All Progressives Congress candidate, Michael Olomu.
Agbedi, the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party, was proclaimed the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission after receiving 21,430 votes, while Olomu received 8,899 votes in the House of Representatives voting on February 25.
The certificate of return given to the PDP candidate was also set aside by the panel.
In some voting units and wards in the Sagbama and Ekeremor LGAs, where the election was marred by violence and other anomalies, the tribunal further ordered INEC to hold a second election within 90 days.
The panel determined that INEC’s material failure to comply with the Electoral Act of 2022 had an impact on the results of the elections in the named polling units and wards.
In its ruling, the tribunal identified the impacted regions for the commission to conduct a new election in within 90 days as being 17 polling units in Wards 10, 11, and 12 of the Ekeremor LGA, six in Ward 11, and all of the polling units in Ward 5 of the Sagbama LGA.
