Abia 2023: Emenike Wins Again as Appeal Court Reaffirms His Candidacy

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia and Alex Enumah in Abuja

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike, yesterday scaled another legal hurdle as the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division further affirmed his candidacy.

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 in appeal No. CA/OW/269/2022.

Oriaku, who was a governorship aspirant, had initially filed the appeal at Owerri Division but secretly moved it to Abuja Division in his desperate efforts to overturn the verdict of an Abia State High Court delivered by Justice Benson Anya which validated Emenike’s candidacy.

The Court of Appeal in its  ruling held that Ikechi Emenike is the candidate of APC in Abia State and as such both APC and INEC are bound to accept his candidature as ruled by the Abia State High Court.

It did not spare the appellant, Obinna Oriaku as the Judge  lambasted the former Abia Finance Commissioner for bringing “the frivolous application” having conceded in his evidence that Emenike won the May 26, 2022 governorship primary of APC in Abia State.

The application was dismissed with a cost of N100,000 in favour of APC, APC chairman and Chief Ikechi Emenike, who were joined as the respondents.

With this Appeal Court verdict in his favour, Emenike has so far triumphed in 20 out of 24 suits, most of which have been described by courts as frivolous, filed against the APC governorship standard bearer by his opponents and their surrogates.

Meanwhile Justice Binta Nyako of Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 11, 2022 for judgment in the suit filed by the immediate past Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Sampson Uche Ogah, challenging Emenike’s gubernatorial ticket.

The national leadership of the ruling APC dealt a heavy blow to Ogah when it disowned him in his claims to the governorship ticket of the party in Abia State.

At the conclusion of hearing in the suit, the APC leadership told the court in Abuja on Wednesday that Ogah was never the party’s candidate for the 2023 governorship poll, adding that it did not conduct the primary election that purportedly threw him up as a governorship candidate.

The party stated that its National Working Committee (NWC) conducted the May 26, 2022 primary election monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in which Chief Ikechi Emenike emerged as its official governorship standard bearer.

The ruling party flatly disowned Ogah when its lead counsel, Professor Sam Eruogo, opened the party’s defence in Ogah’s suit, urging the Federal High Court to dismiss it on two grounds.

According to the Professor of Law, the former minister, having not participated in the primary election conducted by the party’s NWC, has no locus standi to challenge the legally conducted primary election.

Eruogo also told the court that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the issues of the nomination of candidates for elective office by the party.

He further informed the court that the primary election which the former minister purportedly conducted was unknown to any law in Nigeria because it was done by a faction of the Abia State chapter of the APC.

The APC counsel pointed out that the claim of Ogah that he emerged from a direct primary election holds no water because the Electoral Act makes it mandatory for a direct primary to be conducted in 184 wards of the state whereas Ogah conducted his purported primary inside his campaign office in Umuahia.

Eruogo, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the former minister’s suit.

In his submission, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel for  Emenike, prayed the court to uphold the nomination of his client on the ground that he emerged from a primary election lawfully conducted by the APC NWC.

He faulted the purported nomination of the former minister on the ground that no state chapter of any political party has the power to conduct a primary election for the selection of candidates.

The former minister had sued Emenike, APC, Abdullahi Adamu, and INEC, praying the court to compel the APC national leadership to submit his name to INEC as the lawful gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 poll in Abia.

He told the court that the direct primary election through which he purportedly emerged was monitored by officials of INEC and that a report to that effect was made available by the electoral body.

Ogah, therefore, urged the court to nullify the nomination of Emenike and order INEC to publish his own name as the lawful APC candidate.