Supreme court sacks Delta lawmaker, orderssalary refund

The Supreme Court on Friday sacked a member of
the Delta State House of Assembly representing
Ugelli North Constituency II, Mr. Edoja Akpodiete.
The apex court ordered him to refund to the state
coffers all the salaries and allowances he had
collected since he had been occupying the seat
since 2011.
It was the first time the Supreme Court would be
ordering any person to refund the money earned
from office that he or she illegally occupied.
In its lead judgement delivered by Justice Walther
Onnoghen, the Supreme Court ordered that Mr.
Jenkins Gwede of the Democratic Peoples Party to
take over the seat from Akpodiete.
The court held that the Independent National
Electoral Commission had wrongfully issued the
certificate of return to Akpodiete even when it was
aware that he had ceased to be the sponsored
candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party over
45 days before the state House of Assembly
election was conducted on April 26, 2011.
The apex court described INEC's action as
worrisome and therefore awarded a cost of
N650,000 each against the electoral body and
Edoja.
The court affirmed the documents tendered by
Gwede's lawyer, Mr. Ikhide Ehighelua, showing
that the DPP had notified INEC of its choice of
Gwede as its candidate after Akpodiete formally
withdrew from the election and the party returned
the N2m he paid for nomination form to him.
Justice Onnoghen held that the INEC had "foisted
on the electorate of Ugelli North Constituency II of
Delta State House of Assembly a pretender to the
seat who not only withdrew from the election in
writing but collected the deposit he paid to the
4th respondent (DPP) for the said election."
It therefore ordered that the 1st respondent (INEC)
to issue the appellant with a certificate of return in
respect of the House of Assembly election held on
April 26, 2011.
A Federal High Court in Asaba had dismissed
Gwede's case in a judgement delivered on June
27, 2012 for lack of jurisdiction to entertain the
matter because it was election related.
Through his lawyer, Mr. Ikhide Ehighelua, Gwede
had appealed to the Court of Appeal in Benin
which in its judgement delivered on May 22, 2013
had resolved the issues raised in his favour but
refused to make any consequential orders.

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