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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has said Chief Ikechi Emenike still remains it’s Governorship candidate despite the judgment of a Federal High Court delivered in Abuja, yesterday.
Justice Binta Nyako had in a judgment delivered on Friday, declared Dr. Uche Ogah, former Minister of State for Mines and Steel as the authentic Governorship candidate of APC in Abia.
Reacting to the judgment the legal adviser of Abia APC, Mr. Vigilus Nwankwo said that the Appeal Court had already affirmed Emenike as the duly elected candidate of Abia APC, hence the judgmentof a lower court cannot alter the status quo.
“In the eye of the law Ikechi Emenike still remains the candidate of APC in Abia,” he said, adding that the said judgment delivered by Justice Nyako “cannot be enforced or executed untill the final pronouncement by the Supreme Court on the subject matter”.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on October 14, 2022 upheld the judgment of the Abia State High Court presided by Justice Benson Anya which had on June 24, 2022 affirmed the candidature of Emenike in Suit No HUM/31/2022:IKECHI EMENIKE VS APC & 2 ORS.
The appellate court gave the affirmation while dismissing the application filed by Obinna Oriaku Eze seeking to appeal against the judgment delivered on September 2, 2022 by the Appeal Court, Owerri Division in Appeal No. CA/OW/269/2022.
“The law is trite that judgments of the appellate courts binds the court and parties,” Nwankwo said, adding that “the judgment of the Federal High Court cannot overide and is not superior to the said three judgments of the Court of Appeal”.
“Contrary to the judgment of Justice Binta Nyako today, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court had settled it in so many decisions that INEC and the court cannot determine who is the candidate of a political party where and when there are two competing primaries”.
The legal adviser therefore declared that “there is no cause for alarm”, adding that “the mission to rescue and rebuild Abia state by High chief Ikechi Emenike is unstoppable”.
