Isaac Okah, the first runner-up in the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) senatorial primary held in Enugu west in 2018, says he is not dead.
The primary had produced Ike Ekweremadu, the former deputy
senate president, who later won the Enugu west senatorial seat in the 2019
election.
However, Ekweremadu is currently in custody in the UK due to
charges bordering on conspiracy to arrange/facilitate the travel of another
person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.
Following the development, Ogochukwu Onyema, a lawyer and
second runner-up in the aforementioned election, had sought a court order to
declare Ekweremadu’s seat in the senate vacant.
Onyema had claimed that Isaac Okah, the first runner-up, is
dead, adding that he’s the available candidate qualified to take the seat when
it is declared vacant.
Reacting to the development on Friday, Okah said Onyema lied
on oath.
Okah distanced himself from the suit seeking for
Ekweremadu’s seat to be declared vacant, adding that he would not seek to
benefit from the “misfortunes of his kinsman”.
“Sir O.A.U. Onyema equally seeks the order of the court
commanding and mandating the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
and its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to withdraw or revoke, as the case may
be, the certificate of return earlier issued to the 3rd defendant (Ekweremadu)
and issue a fresh certificate of return to him as the only available runner-up
that can validly be nominated as senator Ekweremadu’s replacement,” he said.
“It is imperative to state that I polled 84 votes at the 2nd
October 2018 PDP primary election for the Enugu West Senatorial to place second
behind Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who polled 690 votes to emerge winner, while
O.A.U. Onyema mustered 61 votes to place third.
“However, to further his case, O.A.U. lied on oath by
deposing to an affidavit that the 1st runner-up, being my humble self, is dead,
hence purportedly leaving him as the only available runner-up.
“I wish to unequivocally clarify that I, Mr. Isaac Okah, a
retired director in the federal civil service, is alive, well, and running my
private business.
“It is a shame that naked and unbridled ambition has pushed
O.A.U Onyema into the sacrilege of wishing his fellow man dead.
“It is equally a
shame that a lawyer of several years experience, who aspires to the senate, has
no firm grasp of the position of the 1999 constitution on the grounds on which
a national assembly member’s seat could be declared vacant and is ignorant of
the provisions of Section 76 of the constitution, which explicitly mandates the
INEC to conduct a bye-election within 30 days to fill any vacancy in the
federal legislature.
“I totally condemn and dissociate myself from his wicked
lawsuit, which has no bearing whatsoever with Nigerian laws, conventions and
practices of the national assembly of Nigeria, and our humanity and culture as
Ndigbo.
“However, since an elder like O.A.U. Onyema believes he
could only make it to the senate by lying to benefit from the misfortunes of
his kinsman and wishing another man dead, I wish him well and leave him
entirely to the verdict of God, our ancestors, and history.”
Ekweremadu and Beatrice, his wife, were arrested by London
Metropolitan Police in June and appeared before a magistrate court in July.
Ekweremadu and his wife have been accused of arranging a
kidney donor for Sonia, their daughter, who is said to be suffering from focal
segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) nephrotic syndrome, a rare kidney disease
Ekweremadu’s wife was granted bail on July 22.
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