In what is, no doubt, another jaw dropping judgement, the Imo State National and State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in faraway Mararaba, Nasarawa State, has sacked a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker, Ikenga Ugochinyere.
The three-member panel sitting in Mararaba High Court, held that the House of Representatives member was not validly nominated by the PDP to contest the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency election that was held on February 25 as PDP primaries was never conducted in the federal constituency.
This verdict, however, flies in the face of the Supreme Court judgement in December 2022, which declared Ikenga Ugochinyere as the PDP candidate for the House of Representatives election for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency, Imo State.
Notwithstanding, the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election in the constituency within 90 days.
The tribunal in its lead judgement that was delivered by its Chairman, Justice Anthony Olotu Akpovi, specifically directed the electoral body to conduct the supplementary poll in 55 polling units in four wards where elections were allegedly not held on February 25.
The tribunal curiously held that the PDP and its candidate should be excluded from the supplementary election.
Ikenga Ugochinyere has had a running battle with the Imo State government led by Senator Hope Uzodimma resulting in the burning down of his country home and killing of his uncle in a brazen attack.
The judgement followed a petition that was lodged before the tribunal by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abazu Chika Benson, who came third in the election.
Cited as 1st to 5th respondents in the petition marked: EPT/IM/HR/10/2023, were; INEC, Ugochinyere, PDP, candidate of the Labour Party, Obi Paschal Chigozie, and his party, the LP.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared the PDP candidate, Ugochinyere, as winner of the election with a total of 13,026 votes.
Whereas the candidate of the LP, Chigozie, came second with 5,696 votes, the petitioner who was sponsored by the APC, came third with a total of 2,368 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, the APC candidate filed a petition wherein he contended that Ugochinyere was not qualified to participate in the House of Representatives contest.
The petitioner, among other things, argued that all the votes that were credited to the PDP candidate amounted to wasted votes.
He told the tribunal that contrary to the express provision of the Electoral Act, the PDP conducted its primary election in a venue that was outside the constituency.
In its judgement, the tribunal stressed that documentary and oral evidence that was laid before it established that the primary election the PDP conducted on May 25, 2022, which produced Ugochinyere as its candidate, was held at Aladinma Shopping Mall, a location that was outside Ideato North/South Federal Constituency.
Relying on the provision of section 84 (5) (c) of the Electoral Act 2022, the tribunal held that PDP’s primary election was invalid.
It held that a valid candidate could not have emerged from an invalid primary election.
“Failure of the 3rd respondent (PDP) to abide by the sacrosanct provision of the Electoral Act invalidated its sponsorship of the 2nd respondent,” Justice Akpovi held.
The tribunal maintained that for a primary election to be valid, it must be done in compliance with section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act.
It held that in view of the fact that Ugochinyere was not validly nominated, he was, therefore, not qualified at the time the House of Representatives election was held.
The tribunal held that owing to the principle of margin of lead, the candidate of the LP, Chigozie, could not be declared the winner of the seat, since INEC admitted that it could not hold the election in 55 polling units in the constituency, owing to activities of unknown gunmen.
It, therefore, directed INEC to conduct supplementary polls in the remaining polling units with the parties participating, except the PDP.
Other members of the panel that concurred with the lead judgement, were Justices Usman Kudu and Ibrahim Mohammed.
In December 2022, the Supreme Court declared Ikenga Ugochinyere the PDP candidate for the House of Representatives election for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency, Imo State.
The judgment of the Apex Court delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun ought to have finally put to rest the chains of litigations seeking to upturn the result of the primary election that produced Ugochinyere, who is the spokesperson for the Coalition of United Political Parties.
Justice Kekere-Ekun in the judgment held that there must be an end to litigations and recklessness.
The Apex Court ruled, just like all the lower courts before it, that there were no grounds put before it, to nullify the ticket of the party won by Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, having fulfilled all the provisions of the law and complied with stipulated guidelines.
The judgment of the five-man panel of the Supreme Court was in an appeal marked SC/CV/1439/2022, filed by Hon. George Igbo challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division.
Some of the respondents in the appeal were the PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission, Chidimma Uzomba, and Anthony Obinna, among others.
While dismissing the appeal by Igbo, Justice Kekere-Ekun upheld the preliminary objections raised by Ugochinyere and the PDP.
The Judge agreed with the decision of the Court of Appeal that the abysmal failure and/or refusal of the appellant counsel to comply with the rules of procedure in prosecuting the appeal and indeed abandoned same.
“The appellant filed his notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal on September 9, 2022 within the 14 days period from the date of judgment of the trial court as provided by the Electoral Act 2022 and section 285(9) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
“Section 9 of the Election Judicial Proceedings Practice Direction, 2022 mandatorily provided that the Record of Appeal shall be compiled and served on all the parties not more than 10 days of the receipt of the Notice of Appeal.
“The Notice of Appeal at the Court of Appeal was filed on September 9, 2022.
“The Record of Appeal was compiled on September 19, 2022, 11 days after the notice of appeal was filed. One day out of time.
“The said record of appeal was served on the parties on October 19, 2022, 40 days after the Notice of Appeal was filed against the clear provision of Section 9 of the Election Judicial Proceeding Practice Directions 2022,” the Apex Court noted.
The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal was right in holding that the appellant’s appeal was deemed abandoned.