Abia Tribunal May Sack Deputy Speaker Kalu As Bayelsa’s David Lyon/Degi-Eremieoyo Over Name Discrepancies

This is not the best of times for the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, as the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal (4) sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has admitted in evidence core documents that may lead to his removal, á la David Lyon and Biobarakuma Degi-Eremieoyo of Bayelsa State.

Kalu may see his seat snatched from him if the tribunal relies on available evidence before it as it concerns discrepancies in his names in all nine sensitive documents he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for the national assembly election last February.

The fact of the matter before the tribunal is that Kalu’s name on the West African Examination Council, WAEC is different from his First Degree Certificate issued by the University of Calabar, which is also different from the name on the discharge certificate issued by the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, among other names in the documents before the tribunal.

In one document, he claimed his name to be Osisiogu Benjamin Okozie, then claimed again to be Kalu Benjamin Okezie in another while also claiming he’s the person with the name Benjamin Okozie Osisiogu.

The tribunal admitted all the documents in evidence by the petitioner, Chief Frank Chinasa’s legal team.

The lawyer to the petitioner, Yunus Ustaz Usman, SAN, argued that the names on the nine certificates represent different people.

Although counsel to Kalu, Kelvin Nwufo, SAN, objected to the admissibility of the documents, saying he would adduce reasons for his objection during the submission of his final written address.

But THE WHISTLER recalls that a similar discrepancies led to the sacking of Governor-elect, David Lyon in 2020, when the court ruled that his deputy governor-elect, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremieoyo submitted several documents with different names.

The five-man panel of justices led by Justice Mary Odili, rtd, in a unanimous decision upheld the decision of the appellate court, which said Degi-Eremieoyo provided information in aid of his election that contained false information of fundamental nature.

While the court found nothing wrong with Lyon, the governor-elect, the court held that the ticket was shared as one and that false information provided by Degi-Eremieoyo, his deputy governor-elect, in form CF 001 also affected Lyon.

The apex court in the decision delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko, finally submitted that INEC must withdraw the certificate of return, CoR, issued to both Lyon and Degi-Eremieoyo and issue the CoR to the runner-up.

That judgement was carried out and Senator Duoye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was issued the certificate and eventually became the governor.

If the court relies on this precedent, then Kalu may find himself thrown out of the green chamber despite being one of the principal officers.