electoral committee may be far from being over as the organization’s
Secretary General, Chief Uche Okwukwu, has filed a suit at a High Court
in Umuahia, Abia State asking the court to declare the Imeobi meeting
convened on December 20, 2020, at the Nike Lake Hotel, by the President
General, Chief John Nwodo, as illegal.
In suit No; HU/9/2021, between Chief Uche Okwukwu, (Plaintiff) and Chief
John Nnia Nwodo, (Defendant), Okwukwu further prayed the Court to set
aside any decision taken by Nwodo and members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo at the
December 20, 2020 Imeobi meeting as being a nugatory and of no effect
having not been summoned by Okwukwu in accordance with the provisions of
Article11 of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Constitution.
The plaintiff also sought other reliefs which include; “an order setting
aside the purported electoral committee set up by the defendant without
due process and an order validating the Imeobi meeting held 31st
December ,2020 , in Owerri and properly summoned by the plaintiff in
accordance with the Constitution and all decisions reached therein as
valid, authentic and subsisting.”
The plaintiff further prayed the Court to declare the electoral
committee headed by Prince Richard Ozobu as the authentic one as well as
the award of the sum of N50,000,000, as general damages.
He also prayed the Court to grant an order of perpetual injunction
restraining the defendant, his agents, privies and servants from
summoning any meeting of the national executive committee, Imeobi and
national General Assembly or any other meeting at all without the
knowledge of the plaintiff pending the hearing and determination of the
substantive suit.
However, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
Nwodo and Okwukwu had been locked in a bitter battle over who has the
right to set up an electoral committee to conduct the election which
will usher in the new executives at the local, state and national
levels.
Nwodo had during a meeting of the Imeobi on December 20, 2020, at Nike
Lake Hotel, Enugu, appointed Chief Enwo Igariwey as chairman of the
Ohanaeze Ndigbo electoral panel. Eleven days after, Okwukwu also
convened another meeting of the Imeobi at Owerri, where he set up a
parallel electoral committee headed by Prince Richard Ozobu.