The battle for the Enugu Labour Party Governoship ticket which has lingered in the courts is about to end as the Supreme Court fixes date for judgement for February 27, 2023..
Everest Nnaji popularly known as Odengene, had challenged the listing of Chijioke Edeoga as the candidate of the party in the 2023 general election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Odengene argued that the party didn’t conduct any election in the state.
He also argued that there was no notice anywhere either to him or the general public to show that the party conducted a primary election.
On November 9th, 2023, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sacked Edeoga as the candidate of the Labour Party.
Justice Evelyn Maha of Court 11, Federal High Court, dismissed the primary election as a hoax and ordered the party to conduct a fresh primary election withing 14 days.
The court also agreed that only Odengene met all the requirements to be an aspirant should the Labour Party conduct any primary election as he had all the necessary documents to that effect.
The judgement was however upturned by the Appeal Court which reinstated Edeoga as the candidate.
Odengene appealed the judgement at the Supreme Court, asking the apex Court to set aside the judgement of the Appeal Court and either declare him the candidate of the Labour Party or direct the party to conduct a fresh primary election with him as the sole aspirant.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, fixed February 27th as the date to hear the Appeal by Nnaji.
Odengene is challenging the ruling of the appeal Court on three grounds.
One of the grounds of appeal at the apex Court is that judgement of the appeal court was made without hearing his brief.
He said that he was served in his village and not his known regular address.
This he said was cunning and made to achieve a particular objective because there’s no proof that he tried dodging service and the court bailiff didn’t swear affidavit.
He prayed the court to set aside the ruling of the appeal court because it was given without their brief after failing to serve them appropriately.
On the second ground of appeal, Odengene prayed the apex court to declare him the candidate of the party based on the judgment of the lower court.
The Federal High Court said the evidence before it shows that Nnaji is the only aspirant for the Labour Party governorship ticket as he was the only one that purchased the necessary forms and made the required payments.
Odengene is insisting that if the trial court agrees he was the only one that qualifies to aspire to be candidate of the party, the apex court should either declare him the candidate or mandate the party to conduct an affirmative primary election for him.
He’s praying the apex court to consider this as it wasn’t considered by the appeal court because it was in their brief and the judgment was given without it.