Tag: Emeka

The Court of Appeal, Abuja did not order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to substitute the names of Chief Chris Uba, Senator Annie Okonkwo and Prince John Emeka as candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Anambra South, Central and North senatorial districts.

Counsel to the Ejike Oguebego-led Executive Committee of the PDP in Anambra State, Gordy Uche, said in Abuja on Saturday that contrary to media reports, the issue of who was the party’s candidate was never before the trial court and as such could not have formed part of the issue before the appellate court.

Some media reports claimed that the Court of Appeal ordered INEC to substitute the names of Uba, Okonkwo and Emeka with that of Senator Andy Uba, Uche Ekwunife and Stella Oduah as the PDP candidates.

Uche said the background was based on the judgment by Justice Kekemeke of the FCT High Court, in the case between Emma Mbamalu and Chuks Okoye.

He said Mbamalu and Okoye were not parties in the case and that when  Oguebego learnt of the case and they (Oguebego and Okoye) applied to the court to be joined as interested parties, the court refused to join them, and went ahead with the matter.

Uche said his clients later approached the same court, presided over by Justice Kekemeke to grant them leave to appeal against the judgment it gave in the case. The judge refused and in his ruling, he went into another issue which was not what was before him, by saying the tenure of Oguebego and his executive had lapsed.

He went on: “But then, normally and legally judgments bind the parties before it. This Court of Appeal in its judgment tried to take the position now although they were not parties to the suit then, that the suit concerned the PDP in Anambra State, the one before Kekemeke but that is not the law because there were specific parties before Kekemeke and who the court also refused to grant leave to appeal. This judgment has nothing to do with the delegates’ lists.

“It has nothing to do with the candidates whose name have been sent to INEC and another very important thing you should remember is that these candidates whose names have been submitted to INEC were not parties to either the case before Justice Kekemeke or the appeal before the Court of Appeal, and the Court of Appeal cannot now make an order to remove somebody whose name has already been sent to INEC.

“You also remember the provision of the Electoral Act that once somebody’s name has been submitted to INEC, that it cannot be substituted or removed even by INEC except the person is dead or he resigns willingly, which is not the situation here.

“These people whose names have been submitted are not dead, neither have they withdrawn from the race. So there is no way that judgment could be said to operate against these candidates. At worst, with relation to the Anambra State Executive Committee of the party, it brings the parties back to the status quo as if the judgment never existed, it does not mean that the primaries were never conducted or that their names ought to have been submitted in the first place.

“It is also noteworthy that as at the time the matter was pending at the trial court, the primaries have not been held. So the issue of primaries was not what was before the trial court and cannot now be what is before the appellate court. Because an appeal is merely an appeal from the issues before the trial, so the issue of candidates was never before the trial, the issue was whether the PDP can be allowed to set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the state executive committee, whose tenure was still subsisting.

“In previous decisions of these courts, including the Federal High Court Port Harcourt Division, they have all held that the tenure of the Oguebeho-led executive is still subsisting that the national body does not have the powers to appoint a caretaker committee.

“So the issue being bandied about that INEC should remove Chris Uba, Prince John Emeka and Senator Annie Okonkwo was never before the Court of Appeal. INEC cannot even go ahead to act, based on that judgment because as at Friday, my clients, Oguebego and Chuks Okoye, have filed an appeal before the Supreme Court and also filed an application for a stay of execution.”