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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Alleged plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State to disqualify the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Ideato North and South Federal Constituency election, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, suffered a blow, as the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri rejected a suit filed by the APC to disqualify him from participating in the election.
The ruling party had approached the Court to disqualify only Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere on the basis that his primary election was conducted in Owerri the state capital and not within the Federal constituency. This suit which singles out Ugochinyere is despite the fact that all forty PDP legislative election primaries in Imo State were held at the same time and same venue because of overwhelming security challenges in Imo State and Orlu zone in particular.
Stakeholders in the State are of the opinion that the fear of the impending landslide victory of Ikenga Ugochinyere must have informed the Suit as the APC did not take all the PDP candidates to court except the opposition spokesperson.
Justice M. A. Onyetenu in his judgment declared that the Suit was baseless and vexatious and only amounted to meddlesomeness by the Plaintiff since APC as a political does not have any business challenging the primaries of another political party. The judge further described the primary election that produced Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as proper and in line with the Electoral Act.
Ugochinyere hailed the Nigerian judiciary as truly the last hope of the common man and the bastion of the Nigerian democracy saying for the eight straight time he had obtained judicial victory in the race for the Federal House. He also described the judgment as yet another resounding victory for democracy noting that with this hurdle out of the way, he was sure of a tsunami of votes.
