The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said that it issued a Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah, based on the ruling of a federal high court, sitting in Abuja.
According to Vanguard, the INEC National Commissioner for South East, Lawrence Nwuruku, said the commission was only following the order of a court when it issued the certificate of return to Ogah, who was the runner-up in the 2014 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Meanwhile, a federal high court in Abia state on the same day, issued an order restraining INEC from issuing the certificate to Ogah and also barring the state Chief Judge from swearing him in as governor.
Speaking on the certificate issued to Ogah, the INEC Commissioner said, “The situation is that we are simply obeying the court order. The court said with immediate effect without wasting of time, we should issue him Certificate of Return and that is what we have done – to obey the court order.”
“If the court tomorrow issues another order, we would obey the same. By the grace of God, I am the INEC Commissioner in charge of South East. I’ll do the same thing if the court orders us to do so. If court says we should issue the same certificate to another person.”
“In this case, court ordered us to issue a Certificate of Return to the person who won the election and that is Uche Ogah. I was the person who gave the Certificate of Return to Gov. Ikpeazu as he was declared winner. Now, the court has said otherwise. One thing we know is that we are not above the law and we cannot disobey the laws of the land.”
“After the court, another person we obey in our land is God and my conscience is my God. Another thing that guides us is the court and we must obey its order with immediate effect. If you were in the court that day, and I urge you the media, to go and study the court ruling very well, it was wonderful; it was direct.”
Leave a reply