The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of \u00a0Governor Okezie
\nIkpeazu of Abia State after dismissing the case of Uchechukwu Ogah, who
\nhad earlier obtained a judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja to
\nreplace Ikpeazu.<\/p>\n
But a five-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter
\nOnnoghen, dismissed Ogah\u2019s appeal for lacking in substance.<\/p>\n
Justice Okon Abang, then of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had in his
\njudgments delivered on June 27, sacked Ikpeazu and directed the Chief
\nJudge of Abia State to swear in Uchechukwu Ogah as the state governor.<\/p>\n
The judge ruled that with the alleged falsehood and discrepancies in
\nIkpeazu\u2019s tax documents attached to Form CF001 which he submitted to INEC
\nnominating him as the Peoples Democratic Party\u2019s governorship candidate,
\nhe (Ikpeazu) was not qualified to have contested the 2015 election in the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
But in its judgment delivered on August 18, 2016 a five-man panel of the
\nappeal court led by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, nullified Justice Abang\u2019s
\njudgment and set aside all the orders, including the one directing INEC to
\nissue a fresh certificate of return to Ogah.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court, in its lead judgment prepared by Justice Dattijo
\nMohammed but read by Justice Ejembi Eko, affirmed the substantial decision
\nof the Court of Appeal on Friday.<\/p>\n
The court held that it was detrimental to Ogah\u2019s case that the Peoples
\nDemocratic Party\u2019s guideline around which the suit of the plaintiff was
\nbuilt was not presented before the court.<\/p>\n
It also held that Ikpeazu as then a civil servant could hardly be found to
\nhave flouted tax payments when his tax deductions were at the source.<\/p>\n
The apex court, however, disagreed with the appeal court on one issue,
\nholding that contrary to the lower court\u2019s decision, the suit filed before
\nthe Federal High Court in Abuja was rightly commenced by an originating
\nsummons.<\/p>\n
In his post-judgment comment, the CJN noted that there was a \u201csecurity
\nbreach\u201d in the course of preparing the judgment.<\/p>\n
Warning politicians to allow the judiciary to do its job without
\ninterference, he said there were attempts by them to use court officials
\nto get to know Justices of the Supreme Court that would prepare the lead
\njudgment and what the court\u2019s decision would be.<\/p>\n
The CJN said the incident would be investigated and those culpable would
\nbe sanctioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of \u00a0Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State after dismissing the case of Uchechukwu Ogah, who had earlier obtained a judgment of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n