The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu has won Uche Ogah at the Supreme Court, as the court on Friday, affirmed the election
victory of the governor by a five-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia
State after dismissing the case of
Uchechukwu Ogah, who had earlier obtained a judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja to replace Ikpeazu, The Punch
exclusively reports.
A five-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, dismissed Ogah’s appeal for lacking in substance.
Justice Okon Abang, then of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had in his judgments delivered
on June 27, sacked Ikpeazu and directed the Chief Judge of Abia State to swear in Uchechukwu Ogah as the state governor.
The judge ruled that with the alleged falsehood and discrepancies in Ikpeazu’s tax
documents attached to Form CF001 which he submitted to INEC nominating him as the
Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, he (Ikpeazu) was not qualified to
have contested the 2015 election in the state.
But in its judgment delivered on August 18, 2016 a five-man panel of the appeal court
led by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, nullified Justice Abang’s judgment and set aside all the orders, including the one directing INEC
to issue a fresh certificate of return to Ogah.
The Supreme Court, in its lead judgment prepared by Justice Dattijo Mohammed but
read by Justice Ejembi Eko, affirmed the substantial decision of the Court of Appeal on Friday.
The court held that it was detrimental to Ogah’s case that the Peoples Democratic
Party’s guideline around which the suit of the plaintiff was built was not presented before the court.
It also held that Ikpeazu as then a civil servant could hardly be found to have flouted tax payments when his tax deductions were at the source.
The apex court, however, disagreed with the appeal court on one issue, holding that
contrary to the lower court’s decision, the suit filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja was rightly commenced by an
originating summons.
In his post-judgment comment, the CJN noted that there was a “security breach” in the course of preparing the judgment.
Warning politicians to allow the judiciary to do its job without interference, he said there were attempts by them to use court
officials to get to know Justices of the Supreme Court that would prepare the lead judgment and what the court’s decision
would be.
The CJN said the incident would be
investigated and those culpable would be sanctioned.
