The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, representing Bende federal constituency of Abia state, is in trouble over alleged discrepancies in names discovered in his certificates
The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal 4, sitting in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, has admitted 9 different documents with discrepancies belonging to the lawmaker.
The candidate of the Labour Party candidate in the February 25 House of Representatives poll, Chief Frank Chinasa, who also testified as a star witness before the Hon. Justice Samson Paul Gang led panel.
Some of the Kalu’s documents tendered include his birth certificate; his West African Examination Council (WAEC) Certificate, Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Degree Certificate issued by the University of Calabar, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate; amongst others, which all bore different names.
The Labour Party candidate’s counsel tendered some of the certified true copies of the documents with the different names, such as Osisiogu Benjamin Okezie , Kalu Benjamin Okezie, and Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu, respectively.
The tribunal admitted all 9 documents and marked them as exhibits.
Counsel to the deputy speaker, Chief Kelvin Nwufo, (SAN), objected to the admissibility of the documents as exhibits but promised to give reasons for his objections in the written address.
On his part, Counsel to the All Progressive Congress, (APC), Mr Vigilus Nwankwo and INEC, Ogochukwu Onyekwulije, also objected to the documents, and pledged to adduce their reasons in their written addresses.
In another twist, the tribunal admitted the deposition by the Action Alliance, (AA), candidate, Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuka Igbokwe, that his party’s name and logo were excluded from the ballot box.
The court also admitted in evidence a certified true copy of a protest letter over the exclusion of the party logo submitted to INEC by the National Secretary of the party, Ambassador Suleiman Abdulrash
Igbokwe told the tribunal that the exclusion of his party’s name and logo and his non participation in the elections robbed him of victory.