Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu says he has been vindicated on the validation of his name by the ruling of the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, the Abia State capital which also upheld his election.
In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, Kalu expressed immense gratitude to the judiciary for recognizing that he followed due process and other extant laws to validate his name.
The deputy speaker who reiterated his confidence in the judiciary to do justice to issues at all times thanked the people of Bende federal constituency, his legal team and political associates across the country who stood by him throughout this period
The candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 national assembly elections, Frank Chinasa had petitioned the tribunal, seeking the nullification of Kalu’s election on the account of alleged inconsistency in his name change; a matter that was decided by an Umuahia High Court on August 25, 2021 by Justice A.O Chijioke in favour of Benjamin Kalu when one Okay Ezeala also approached the court seeking the nullification of the election on the same ground.
In a remarkable, unanimous judgment by the three man panel read by the Chairman, Justice Samson Paul Gang on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 in Umuahia, the tribunal again dismissed the petition and denied all the prayers of the petitioner for lacking in merit.
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The panel held that Kalu’s certificates were never forged and that the names in the certificates were all his and also held that Kalu had since harmonized his names through a Deed Pool published in a federal gazette, backed with a newspaper publication of change of name, insisting that the petitioner could not establish any case of certificate forgery against him.
The tribunal further held that since the election results were never contested, Kalu, therefore, remains the winner of the National Assembly elections for Bende federal constituency in the House of Representatives
The deputy speaker promised not to take the people’s mandate and the demands of his current office for granted calling on his opponents to accept his rights under the extant laws, embrace the Will of God and the verdict of the tribunal as well as that of Ndi Bende and join him in the tasks of enacting good legislations for the good of the country.
(Editor: Ena Agbanoma)
