INEC declares LP candidate serving jail term winner of assembly rerun election
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Bright Ngene of the Labour Party (LP) as the winner of the rerun election held in the Enugu South Urban Constituency of Enugu State.
INEC declared Ngene as the winner of the Enugu rerun election in a statement by its spokesperson, Sam Olumekun, on Tuesday, reports Premium Times.
The Enugu South Urban Constituency rerun was held on 16 August 2025; it was the fourth attempt for the court-ordered exercise to happen.
The election, which was ordered after the 2023 election was nullified in eight polling units, had faced repeated disruptions since February 2024.
Meanwhile, Ngene is currently serving a seven-year jail term in Enugu State Correctional Centre after an Enugu South Magistrate Court sentenced him to prison on 28 July 2024 over a communal crisis.
Olumekun, in the statement posted on Facebook on Tuesday, confirmed that Ngene secured the highest number of votes to defeat his closest rival, Sam Ngene of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Two re-run elections by order of the Election Petition Appeal Tribunals were held in Enugu and Kano States.
“After previous disruptions of the elections in the two states by violence and thuggery, the elections have now been concluded,” he stated.
Continuing, the INEC spokesperson said, “Declaration and return were made by the returning officers. For the Enugu South 1 State Constituency of Enugu State, Ngene Bright Emeka of the Labour Party (LP) was declared the winner.”
He noted that the elected candidates would be presented with Certificates of Return on 21 August and 22 2025 for the National Assembly candidates and State House of Assembly candidates, respectively.
“The occasion will take place at the INEC National Headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, 21st August 2025, at 3.00 pm.
“For State Houses of Assembly, the Certificates of Return will be presented to members-elect by the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in our State offices on Friday, 22nd August 2025, at 11.00 am,” he said.
INEC had declared the LP’s Ngene winner of the election held for the constituency on 18 March 2023, but a tribunal nullified his election in September of that year before ordering a rerun election within 90 days.
The PDP candidate in the election, Sam Ngene, challenged Ngene’s election at the tribunal.
The LP candidate won in all the rerun elections, including the one ordered by a Court of Appeal. But the polls were all cancelled afterwards.
Even the rerun election held on 16 August 2025 initially looked set to be declared inconclusive after polling officials failed to produce sensitive election materials, including result sheets, which appeared to make the exercise impossible.
Meanwhile, the LP’s Ngene was convicted in the heat of his repeated victories in the cancelled rerun elections.
He was sentenced to a seven-year jail term by the Enugu South Magistrate Court, presided over by E. D. Onwu.
The LP candidate was first arraigned in 2017 alongside two others by the police in Enugu State over the theft of N15 million belonging to Akwuke, a community in the Enugu South Local Government Area of the state.
The matter had not come up since 2017, when Ngene served as legal counsel to his Akwuke Community in Enugu State.
The matter was later referred to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
However, after Ngene’s initial election victory in 2023, the magistrate who had earlier transferred the case to ADR revisited the case, explaining that he was under instruction to conclude the matter.
Observers say the prosecution and hurried conviction of the LP candidate were politically motivated.
