Judgment not in my favour--Nkwonta, Abia South senatorial zone

www.odogwublog.com reports that the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia South Senatorial District, Chief Chris Nkwonta, today faulted the verdict of the 2015 Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital ordering for a rerun of election in Obingwa local government and some parts of Ugwunagbo, within 90 days.
Nkwonta, the petitioner had approached the election petition tribunal challenging the victory of Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe in the election which was held on March 28, 2015, in six local government areas of Abia Abia South; Obingwa, Ukwa East, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa West, Aba North, and Aba South LGA's respectively.
Nkwonta who spoke to journalists after the ruling described the judgment as a travesty of justice, stressing that the learned jurists ignored the critical parts of his petition and went ahead to give a verdict favouring his opponent.
“This judgment defies all electoral logic. For now, we are still studying it. We will discuss with our legal team whether we are going on appeal or a rerun as they ruled. I can’t tell you what we are going to do until I make consultations.
"For the fact that we proved that there were irregularities in Obingwa local government which is the home of my opponent who is a sitting senator, and yet a rerun was ordered, it shows that my petition was not given the attention it deserves. What the Tribunal should have done was to deduct illegal votes and declare the winner. But rather than granting my prayers to cancel the affected areas and declare me winner, they went ahead to reward my opponent for irregularities committed in his local government. Don’t you see how they were rejoicing after the verdict?
“Though, I would have preferred an outright granting of our prayers, by declaring me winner in the face of undisputed evidence and facts, I'm however not totally disappointed with the ruling. I have proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was no election in Obingwa; it was mere allocation of votes to my opponent, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. We were able to prove that the so called 64,700 votes credited to my opponents was a farce. My victory has today been delayed, but certainly we will get justice. I won’t allow the senatorial mandate the good people of Abia South people gave me on March 28 to be taken away from me”, Nkwonta lamented
The APGA candidate called on his supporters across the six council areas to remain calm and law abiding as he hopes in the Judiciary to do justice on the matter.