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The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the appeal filed by opposition parties seeking to nullify the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State primary election conducted last year, which produced Prof Ikonne as the governorship candidate and other candidates of the PDP, Abia State.
The case suit no FHC/UM/CS/62/22, with Supreme Court appeal number SC/CV/143/2023, is between Barr. Ndudi Nwagbara, Onyekachi Abaribe and five others vs INEC, PDP, Gov. Ikpeazu, Prof Ikonne and 35 others, commenced at the Federal High Court Umuahia, which said court dismissed the suit on the basis that the claimants, who claimed to have bought forms to participate in the congress elections of the PDP Abia as delegates, were not aspirants as described in the electoral Act 2022 and, therefore, lacks the locus standi to bring the action.
The claimants not being satisfied with the judgement of the Federal High Court, Umuahia filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal Owerri, and in January 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the judgement of the trial court and also ruled that they lacked the locus standi to bring the appeal at the Court of Appeal Owerri.
The appellants (opposition) also filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, which ruled yesterday that their appeal was rubbish and ought not to have come to the Supreme Court, which lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the same. The appellants’ lawyer, Chief Chukwuma Wachukwu Ume, SAN, was asked by the Supreme Court Justices of seven panel, led by Justice John Okoro, to withdraw the appeal, which he did, and the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and awarded N2 million in favour of the respondents, which was to be paid personally by the learned SAN for filing a frivolous and vexatious appeal.
In a related development, they also filed a motion seeking to substitute Chief Okey Ahaiwe, who is the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Abia State with late Prof Ikonne, which was opposed vehemently that Chief Ahaiwe was not a product of the first PDP primary election that produced Prof Ikonne, but a product of a different primary election and stands on his own.
The implication of that judgement is that there is no legal impediment for any of the governorship, senatorial, House of Reps and House of Assembly candidates of the PDP as the opposition had hoped that the said PDP congress and primaries would be cancelled, so that PDP will have no candidate in the 2023 general elections, as it happened in Rivers and Zamfara states in 2015.
Emeka Eze represented Chief Okey Ahaiwe (party seeking to be joined, Dr Livy Uzochukwu, SAN, for PDP, H. Balogun for the governor, Okey Amaechi, SAN, for Ikuku, Ukpai Ukairo for Senator Mao, Dr. Hagler for Erondu Jnr and others.
The dismissed case is believed to have been instituted through proxies by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who left the PDP and also withdrew from the 2022 primaries when it was clear that he was not the favoured aspirant of the stakeholders in Abia PDP. He later joined APGA to contest the 2023 Abia South senatorial election against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
