The Anambra State House of Assembly has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to without further delay conduct the Central Senatorial rerun election that has been left vacant for close to two years in order to give the people of the zone a voice in the Senate.

The motion, which was moved by a member representing Onitsha North 1, State Constituency, Hon. Chigbo Enwezor, was unanimously backed by members of the house.

According to Enwezor, “The people of the Central Senatorial Zone were facing neglect and undue sabotage with the continued vacancy in the seat since the removal of Senator Uche Ekwunife in December 2015.

“The situation was no longer funny as it will be two years soon, yet Anambra central is still being denied a Senator.”

The motion was seconded by a member representing Anambra East constituency, Hon. Obinna Emenaka.

He stressed the need for the election to be conducted noting that matters concerning the state could not be effectively pushed by just two Senators in a Senate where every state is represented by three.

On her part, the Speaker of the house, Rt. Hon. Rita Maduagwu noted that the conduct of the election should not be a thing of political party as the non-representation of the zone in the Senate was affecting all people of the zone.

It would be recalled that the Appeal Court had sacked Hon. Ekwunife from the Senate based on the fact that she was not properly nominated by her party even as they called for a fresh election.

The court while hearing the case also barred the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from presenting a candidate.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Senatorial election, Dr. Chris Ngige, who is laying claim to litigation over the election still pending in court, has declined interest to re-contest saying he is on national assignment. .

Ngige had recently attributed the non-conduct of the election to litigations which were still pending, but in a swift reaction Chief Victor Umeh, candidate of the APGA in the election refuted the claim, saying the Supreme Court judgment of January 10, 2017 had settled everything.

The Supreme Court had affirmed the judgment of the Appeal Court, which barred the fielding of new candidates for the rerun election.

Umeh maintained that INEC has no other reason to delay on the conduct of the rerun election and also shut out all persons who were not part of the previous election.

He, however, accused both the PDP and APC of conspiracy to stop the conduct of the election, after having been barred from presenting fresh candidates for the election.

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