IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Abuja
Senate, on Tuesday at plenary directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)to conduct by-elections to fill the vacant seats in Anambra South and Edo Central Senatorial Districts, respectively.
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio gave the directive during plenary while officially declaring the seats vacant.
INEC had in January 2025 said that it was awaiting a formal request from the Senate before proceeding with a by-elections, especially the Anambra South, which has remained vacant since 2024,.
While the death of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the All Progressives Congress, APC on July 27, 2024 created a vacuum in the Anambra South Senatorial District, the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the Edo State governor also in 2024 made Edo Central Senatorial District to be vacant.
Ubah reportedly died of a cardiac arrest in London, at the age of 52, two days after he departed Nigeria for the United Kingdom on July 25.
Also, the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo, the candidate of the APC in the Edo State governorship election on September 22, 2024 led to vacancy in the Edo Central seat in the Red Chamber.
According to the INEC, Okpebholo secured a total of 291,667 votes to beat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who garnered 247,655 votes.
The Senate had earlier declared the Edo Central seat vacant in 2024, after a valedictory session held in honour of Senator Okpebholo in December last year after his election.
The INEC, through its Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Anambra State, Elizabeth Agu, reiterated the commitment of the commission to fill the vacant seats through by-elections once directed by the Senate during a stakeholders’ dialogue organised by the Internationals Press Centre, IPC in Awka, the state capital recently.
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