By LEONARD OKACHIE
UMUAHIA- The All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Governorship Aspirant in Abia, Chief Dan Eke, has urged the Appeal Court, Owerri Division, to invalidate the candidacies of Chief Ikechi Emenike and Uche Ogah.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an Umuahia Federal High Court on Oct. 7, dismissed Eke’s suit challenging the outcomes of the parallel APC governorship primaries.
In doing so, the trial judge, Justice Evelyn Anyadike, said that Eke lacked the locus standi to sue, having not participated in the exercise.
Both Emenike and Ogah, a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, conducted separate primaries, which handed them the tickets.
However, the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) validated Emenike’s ticket obtained through an indirect mode of primary and forwarded his name to INEC.
Ogah, who emerged from a purported direct mode of primary, has since filed a suit also challenging Emenike’s candidacy.
Eke had alleged that both primaries were not conducted in compliance with Section 84(14) of the Electoral Act 2022, the APC Constitution as well as the guidelines and directives of the NWC for the May 26 primaries.
He, therefore, approached the Appeal Court with the reliefs to set aside the judgment of the trial judge allow his suit.
He also urged the Upper Court to consider and determine his suit on its merit.
He averred that the trial judge “erred in law” on six grounds, including denying him of the locus standi to sue and dismissing his suit without looking into its merit, amongst others.
Eke further averred that the decision by the trial judge that he did not participate in the primaries, after admitting that his names and scores were published in the result sheets, “occasioned a miscarriage of justice in the matter”.
His Counsel, Chief Obinna Nkume, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the filing of the processes for the appeal by all the parties had been concluded.
“We are therefore waiting for the Court to give us a date.
“The appeal has to be concluded within 60 days from the day it was filed.
“The same reliefs that the Federal High Court in Umuahia shied away from granting us is what we are asking the Apeeal Court to grant us because it has the jurisdiction,” Nkume said. (NAN)
