‘No Legal, Constitutional Hurdle for Ogah as Abia Governor’

•Lawyer calls for his immediate swearing in

By Senator Iroegbu

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Monday Ubani, has said that following the multiple court rulings last week Friday in the case involving the authentic Governor of Abia State, there is no more legal or constitutional barrier to Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah’s being sworn in as the governor of the state.

In a statement made available, he noted that if the current constitutional and judicial interpretations of the scenario are to be applied, Ogah should assume the office of the governor.

He explained that the summation of what seemed like conflicting Federal High Court rulings in Abuja, Osisoma in Abia State,  and Owerri, Imo state, is that Ogah remains the valid candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and, by implication, the governor of the state.

He stated: “Two things or decisions took place on July 8, 2016 at both federal high courts in Owerri and Abuja that require some clarifications to all and sundry. The first was the one involving Sir F.N Nwosu, a fellow contestant to the primary election of PDP in December 2014, who also took Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu to court on the same tax issue, but in his own case he made allegation of forgery against Ikpeazu contrary to S182(j) of the 1999 Constitution as Amended. His contention was that since Ikpeazu was not qualified to run for the primary election because of the alleged forgery of his tax papers, he who came joint fourth(with five votes) should be declared the governor of the state as he and only Ikpeazu signed the result sheet.

“On why he should be preferred against Ogah who came second in the primaries, he argued strenuously that Ogah and other contestants did not sign the result sheet apart from  Ikpeazu who apparently is now no longer qualified to have run for the primaries. As I predicted in most of my write-ups before now, he had his case thrown out for lacking merit and substance.

“Forgery is a criminal offence which requires proof beyond reasonable doubt and since he was unable to prove forgery, he had his matter dismissed. However, the judge acknowledged that the tax papers of Ikpeazu contained some discrepancies.”

Further details later