Some protesters have taken to the streets of Umuahia, Abia State capital, to express their grievances over the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which sacked the lawmaker representing Abia Central Senatorial District, Darlington Nwokocha.
The protesters, led by the deputy speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Austin Meregini, expressed their rejection of the judgment while calling for its review.
According to the Chairman of the LP in Abia State, Ceekay Igara, while addressing protesters and party supporters, the judgment was a rape of democracy and a robbery of the people’s mandate.
Premium Politics reported that the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, sacked Nwokocha and declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Col. Austin Akobundu (retd.), the winner of the February 25 National Assembly Election in the Senatorial District.
Reacting to the court ruling, Igara said: “The judiciary should not be allowed to change the decisions of the people on the grounds of frivolous technicalities,” Igara said.
The LP chairman further claimed that the people of the constituency were not happy and had complained bitterly.
“We are in shock about the judgement because Section 77 of the electoral act, which the panel relied on to deliver the judgment, which dealt with the membership of a party, has been decided by the Supreme Court as an internal affair of the political party.
“We are demanding the details of the judgement to enable our lawyers to study and decide on the next line of action,” he added.
He assured that the party would not allow the mandate of Abia Central constituents to be stolen through the back door.
The Chairman however called on lovers of democracy to help protect Nigeria’s democracy against alleged siege by political desperados, while calling on President Bola Tinubu not to allow greedy politicians to destroy Nigeria’s democracy for personal aggrandizement.
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