The Supreme Court on its unanimous judgment on the Imo State APC chairmanship tussle, set aside an earlier ruling by an FCT High Court which recognised Mr. Dan Nwafor as the state chairman.
In the judgment read by Justice Adamu Jauro on behalf of four other justices, it held that the FCT High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit abinitio.
According to the supreme court, ” the trial court lacked territorial jurisdictional competence to have entertained the suit in the first place, hence rendering the decision it reached a nullity.”
The Supreme Court further held thus: “The law is settled that a suit should be filed in the High Court of the state in which the facts constituting the cause of action occurred; that is the High Court of the state in which the events occurred.”
It further held that for the first respondent to have left imo State where the events in dispute occurred and rushed to Abuja to file the suit amounted to “forum shopping and a gross abuse of court processes.”
The Supreme Court therefore struck out the appeal filed by Mr Dan Neafor and said,
“The suit together with the processes filed right from the trial court are hereby stuck out. Parties are to bear their respective costs.”
