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Raphael Ede, Enugu
There is another confusion in Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed Prince Lawrence Ezeh as the party’s candidate for Enugu East senatorial district, citing a court order.
On the “final list of senatorial candidates” for the 2019 general elections published on its website, on Wednesday, INEC also replaced his name with that of Princess Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha.
The development came three weeks after the National Assembly elections of March 9, in which INEC retained Ezeh as the APC candidate for Enugu East senatorial seat, despite an earlier court order issued on February 19, by the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu.
In the judgment, the court sacked Ezeh as the APC senatorial candidate for Enugu East and said he was not properly nominated by the ruling party.
The court had further ruled that the plaintiff, Ogbu-Aguocha, who came second in the APC senatorial primary election, held on October 2, 2018, is the rightful candidate since Uchenna Ezemba, who won the primary, had voluntarily stepped down.
Ezemba had, shortly after the primary election, announced her withdrawal to pave the way for Prince Ezeh, who lost his bid to fly the PDP flag.
Ezeh, after his defeat at the PDP senatorial primary, along with other aspirants, by the former governor of the state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, defected to the APC, where he was awarded the party’s ticket with which he began his campaign ahead of the election.
The development irked other contestants, including the plaintiff, who vowed to seek legal redress.
Consequently, Ogbu-Aguocha instituted the court action to challenge the decision of the party to field Ezeh, whom she said never contested the APC primary and was not a member of party as at the time the primary election was held.
She, among other reliefs, prayed the court to declare her the duly elected candidate of the APC since Ezemba, who emerged winner of the primary, had withdrawn from the contest.
The presiding judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, in the judgement, dismissed the objection raised by the defendant’s counsel that the case was statute-barred, explaining that the matter, which arose from an act of impunity, centred on wrongful nomination and not substitution.
