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Akunyili condemns ‘Ngige's desperation’ to stall election
petition Newsdiaryonline
Mon Dec 5,2011
Prof Akunyili
All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for Anambra
Central Senatorial District, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has strongly
condemned what she
called the desperation of her main rival, Dr. Chris Ngige of the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), to prevent the Election
Petition Tribunal from hearing her case.
Akunyili, who is challenging the declaration of Ngige as winner
of the April 9, 2011 senatorial election for Anambra Central,
described his attitude as being reminiscent of that of the woman
in the Bible who preferred to have a disputed child killed
rather than being given to the rightful owner.
"All I have done by going to court is to give the judiciary an
opportunity to determine whether the election was rigged or not
and to determine the rightful winner of the said election, but
Ngige's desperation has seen him filing frivolous suits seeking
to have the case thrown out on technical grounds contrary to the
spirit and letters of the Electoral Act," Akunyili said in a
statement signed on her behalf by her Special Assistant on
Media, Mr. Isaac Umunna.
The former Information and Communications Minister observed that
"Ngige's attitude runs counter to his claims of having won the
election because if he is convinced that he really won it, he
would have been eager to allow the judiciary to do its work."
Akunyili's statement followed Friday's dismissal of three fresh
appeals filed by Ngige at the Court of Appeal Enugu seeking to
have the court rescind its ruling of the previous week
compelling the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal
sitting in Awka to hear Akunyili's case on merit. In addition to
dismissing all three appeals by Ngige on Friday, the Court of
Appeal also ordered him to pay Akunyili N30,000 for each of the
failed appeals, amounting to N90,000 for the three appeals.
With Friday's ruling, all is now set for the Election Petition
Tribunal, which similarly threw out Ngige's objection last week
Monday, to start hearing Akunyili's case in Awka from Tuesday,
December 6.
Th
This is the document referred to in the Witness
Statement on Oath of Clifford O. Kokogho as
“Exhibit
COK.2”
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