The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, High Chief Ikechi Emenike has scaled another legal hurdle as the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division further affirmed his candidacy on Friday.
The appellate court gave the affirmation while dismissing the application filed by Obinna Oriaku Eze seeking to appeal against the judgment delivered on September 2, 2022 in Appeal No. CA/OW/269/2022.
Oriaku, who was a governorship aspirant, had initially filed the appeal at Owerri Division but secretly moved it to Abuja Division in his desperate efforts to overturn the verdict of an Abia State High Court delivered by Justice Benson Anya which validated Emenike's candidacy.
The Court of Appeal in its elegant ruling held that Ikechi Emenike is the candidate of APC in Abia state and as such both APC and INEC are bound to accept his candidature as ruled by the Abia state high court.
It did not spare the appellant, Obinna Oriaku as the judge lambasted the former Abia finance commissioner for bringing "the frivolous application" having conceded in his evidence that Emenike won the May 26, 2022 governorship primary of APC in Abia State.
The application was dismissed with a cost of N100,000 in favour of each of APC, APC chairman and High Chief Ikechi Emenike, who were joined as the respondents.
With this Appeal Court verdict in his favour, Emenike has so far triumphdd in 20 out of 24 suits, most of which have been described by courts as frivolous, filed against the APC governorship flag bearer by his opponents and their surrogates.
Meanwhile Justice Binta Nyako of Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 11, 2022 for judgment in the suit filed by the immediate past Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Sampson Uche Ogah challenging Emenike's gubernatorial ticket.
The national leadership of the ruling APC dealt a heavy blow to Ogah when it disowned him in his claims to the governorship ticket of the party in Abia State.
At the conclusion of hearing in the suit the APC leadership told the Court in Abuja on Wednesday that Ogah was never the party's candidate for the 2023 governorship poll, adding that it did not conduct the primary election that purportedly threw him up as a governorship candidate.
The party stated that its National Working Committee (NWC) conducted the May 26, 2022 primary election monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in which High Chief Ikechi Emenike emerged as its official governorship flag bearer.
The ruling party flatly disowned Ogah when its lead counsel Professor Sam Eruogo, opened the party's defence in Ogah's suit, urging the Federal High Court to dismiss it on two grounds.
According to the professor of law, the former minister, having not participated in the primary election conducted by the party's NWC, has no locus standi to challenge the legally conducted primary election.
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