The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed Ikechi Emenike as the Abia State Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general election.
Recall that in December 2022, The Court of Appeal Abuja, in a unanimous judgement delivered on three appeal cases before it, the appeal panel led by Hon. Justice Peter Olabisi Ige held that the May 26, 2022 primary election through which Emenike emerged was valid and his candidacy had no blemish.
In view of this, Ogah challenged the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which upturned his candidature for the governorship poll.
Delivering judgement on Mr Ogah’s appeal, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, by Justice Tijanni Abubakar held that Mr Ogah’s appeal was devoid of merit.
“There is nothing useful for the appellant to ask in this appeal. The judgement of the Court of Appeal, Abuja is affirmed. The appeal is dismissed,” Mr Abubakar declared.
Background
Ogah and Emenike had emerged as APC’s governorship candidates in Abia State from parallel primaries.
However Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja in her judgment, validated the primaries conducted by Ogah and declared him the authentic candidate of the party in the state, compelling INEC to recognize him.
Both APC and its gubernatorial candidate, Emenike, then filed separate appeals challenging the verdict delivered by Justice Nyako that declared Ogah as the APC candidate.
One of the governorship aspirants, Dan Eke also filed his own appeal challenging the judgement of the trial judge that recognised Ogah’s purported candidacy.
But the Appellate Court in the judgements delivered one after the other on Appeal No. CA/ABJ/1258 High Chief Ikechi Emenike Vs Dr. Sampson Uche Ogah & 3 Ors; CA/ABJ/1257 APC Vs Dr. Sampson Uche Ogah & 3 Ors resolved the appeals in favour of the appellants.
The three-man panel of the Appellate court overturned the judgement of Justice Nyako and dismissed Mr. Sampson Uche Ogah as the APC candidate for the state.
It also held that the appeal No. CA/ABJ/1297 filed by Dr. Eke was successful, thereby dealing a crushing blow to Ogah’s claim to the Abia APC governorship ticket.
Justice Ige reprimanded Nyako for ignoring the issue of jurisdiction instead of resolving the issue given that it was fundamental in adjudication.
The panel also held that Ogah lacked the locus to challenge the outcome of the party primary since he did not participate in the exercise but instead claimed that he conducted a separate primary which was not sanctioned by his party.
The judgement of the trial court was voided by the appellate court as it upheld the earlier judgement of the Appeal Court in Owerri which affirmed Emenike’s candidacy.
In her verdict, Justice Nyako had ignored the judgement of the Appellate Court in Owerri and two other Appeal Court verdicts that were all resolved in favour of Emenike.
But Justice Ige and his learned colleagues held that they were bound by the judgement of Justice Pemu of the Court of Appeal Owerri, saying that Nyako’s judgement cannot displace the judgement of the Appeal Court, Owerri Division.
On the issue of Justice Nyako’s failure to invite an address from counsel in the sole issue she had raised was a breach of fair hearing and therefore resolved it in Emenike’s favour.
The Appellate Court therefore held that the indirect primary conducted by APC in Abia was valid and frowned at the action of Nyako for upholding the purported direct primary of Ogah thereby suggesting that the same was ratified by a certain state chapter.
In delivering the unanimous verdict, Justice Ige read out the names of the members of the panel sent by the National Secretariat of APC to conduct the governorship primary that produced Emenike, affirming that the exercise was valid.
He faulted the report of INEC which Ogah had used to back his claims, saying that a report by the electoral umpire “cannot validate an otherwise invalid primaries”.
“You cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand. The INEC report is inchoate and cannot validate the primaries relied on by Ogah,” the Appellate Court held.
With this judgement Emenike remains the authentic governorship flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress in Abia State
