The above is one germane question the people of Enugu State will be looking out for the Labour Party governorship candidate Mr Chijioke Edeoga to provide answers and evidence to at the election petitions tribunal sitting in the state. This is considering the fact it has been established that Mr. Edeoga, who was hurriedly and fraudulently pushed into the Labour Party, is not and has never been a registered member of the party.
If Mr. Edeoga is not and has never been a registered member of Labour Party as required by the law, on what legal basis or stand did he become the party governorship candidate overnight and qualified to run for election on the party platform in the first place?
Mr. Edeoga is now in the eye of the storm. His Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart and Governor-elect, Mr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, whom he had petitioned against his victory in the election, has just through his counsels told the tribunal that Edeoga is not qualified to run for the governorship election on the Labour Party platform, let alone challenging his victory.
According to Mbah, Chijioke Edeoga, who participated in the governorship primary of the PDP held on 25th May 2022, and who was also recorded to have scored 9 votes in the said primary election, could not under the Electoral Act 2022 be presented by LP as its candidate.
Mbah told the Enugu State Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal that Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP), was not a validly nominated governorship candidate of the LP and by that very fact, lacked the locus to challenge his emergence as governor-elect.
The governor-elect quoted Section 77 (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, which provided that “Every registered political party shall maintain a register of its members in both hard and soft copy. Each political party shall make such register available to the Commission not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses, or convention.”
The LP governorship primary election held on 9th June, 2022, about 15 days after the 25th May, 2022 primary election, where Edeoga was at the venue, contested, and polled 9 votes to lose to Dr. Peter Mbah, who recorded 790 votes.
Mbah, therefore, maintained that since the essence of submitting the register was to ensure that only members of a political party could vote or be voted for in party primaries, it was impossible for Edeoga to claim that he was a member of LP 30 days before the governorship primary election of the party.
Now that the fundamental issue of Mr. Edeoga's eligibility or qualification to contest the governorship election has been raised and questioned by Mbah, the ball is in Edeoga's court to prove Mbah wrong with evidence that he was a member of the Labour Party before contesting the primaries.
If Edeoga proves his membership, it means that Edeoga is very dubious, being a member of PDP and LP at the same time. This is against the law. Also, in defending himself, Edeoga should be mindful and reminded that the authentic Labour Party register in the state including that of his ward and local government area have been in the custody of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before now as required by the law.
As it is now, there is and will be no room for Edeoga's usual manipulation or shenanigan of forging fake documents and peddling them on social media as genuine court documents. The die is cast, and what will save Edeoga is nothing but to provide incontrovertible evidence and prove beyond reasonable doubt at the tribunal his membership of Labour Party before emerging as the party's candidate.
Unfortunately and expectedly, I have been reading Edeoga 'social media lawyers, blackmailers, and analysts trying to be dismissive of the issue with their armchair and watery analyses and postulations on social media platforms.
They even tried to liken Edeoga's party membership question at the tribunal with the Federal High Court's dismissal of one Chika Idoko's case against PDP candidates in Enugu. For sure, both are different cases with no correlation.
Edeoga and his social media bandits should prepare their defence and present at the tribunal and not on social media. No court or judge operates on social media. If it is proven at the tribunal that Mr Edeoga was not a member of Labour Party before emerging as the party's governorship candidate which is likely, his petition will be dismissed for he is not qualified to contest in the first place and has no locus standi to challenge the outcome of the election.
