A member of the House of Representatives, Emeka Chinedu, has reportedly threatened to invoke Nigeria’s cybercrime law against AIC Akwarandu, Convener of the Ezinihitte Progressives, following a Supreme Court judgment that nullified his candidature for the 2027 election.
Chinedu, who represents Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency of Imo State, allegedly issued the threat in a WhatsApp message to Akwarandu after the apex court’s judgment.
According to the message, seen by our correspondent, the lawmaker threatened to use the cybercrime law against Akwarandu over his comments on the court judgment and Chinedu’s political activities.
The development followed a statement by Akwarandu welcoming the Supreme Court decision and declaring that it had effectively ended Chinedu’s bid for a third term in the House of Representatives.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 governing party membership registers and the nomination of candidates. The apex court restored sections 77(5), (6) and (7), as well as Section 84(2), which had earlier been voided by the Court of Appeal.
The ruling has implications for candidates whose eligibility to participate in party primaries depends on compliance with the statutory membership-register requirements.
Chinedu, a two-term lawmaker, had recently moved to the Young Progressives Party (YPP) after leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The YPP unveiled him on September 18 as its candidate for the Ahiazu Mbaise/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency in the 2027 general elections.
In its statement, the Ezinihitte Progressives alleged that Chinedu first left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under which he won the seat in 2019 and 2023, for the APC in a bid to secure a third-term ticket.
The group claimed that after failing to secure the APC ticket, he made moves to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) before eventually obtaining the YPP ticket.
It alleged that the Supreme Court judgment had now rendered the YPP candidature invalid.
However, the group’s account of the court decision goes beyond what is contained in the publicly reported summary of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Reports on the judgment say the apex court specifically upheld the statutory requirements concerning party membership registers and nomination procedures.
Akwarandu said the Supreme Court’s decision had “finally closed the late defection loophole,” arguing that an aspirant could not participate in one party’s primaries, lose, defect to another party and subsequently obtain its ticket for the same election cycle.
He also claimed that Chinedu could not have been a valid YPP member when the party submitted its statutory membership register to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), given the timing of his movement between political parties.
The group consequently declared that Ezinihitte had no candidate on the ballot for the 2027 House of Representatives election, and called on political actors who allegedly collected money from Chinedu during his search for a political platform to refund the funds.
It further advised the lawmaker to step aside from the race.
The latest dispute adds another chapter to the political contest over the federal constituency, where Chinedu has represented the people since 2019.
He was returned in 2023 on the PDP platform after the Court of Appeal affirmed his election and dismissed challenges by candidates of the APC and Labour Party.
The Supreme Court had also dismissed an earlier APC challenge to his nomination as PDP candidate ahead of the 2023 election, holding that the APC had no legal right to challenge the internal candidate-selection process of the PDP.
Chinedu’s latest move to the YPP had been publicly presented by his campaign team as a new political chapter in his bid for another term.
The latest development has now shifted the focus from his campaign to the legal implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling and the continuing political dispute over who will represent Ahiazu/Ezinihitte in 2027.