{"id":83900,"date":"2021-07-21T10:39:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T09:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=83900"},"modified":"2021-07-21T10:39:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T09:39:43","slug":"court-declines-to-sack-gov-uzodinma-deputy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-declines-to-sack-gov-uzodinma-deputy\/","title":{"rendered":"Court declines to sack Gov Uzodinma, deputy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-f:1705885411344159454\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nA Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has dismissed a suit seeking to nullify the election of Senator Hope Uzodinma and his Deputy, Prof Placid Njoku and to declare the governorship seat of Imo State vacant.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Trial judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo on Monday, held that the applicant, Mcfyne Chikwedu, had no locus standi, adding that the suit was \u201cpatently non-justiciable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge noted that Uzodinma\u2019s election had been affirmed by the Supreme Court and his court was not an election tribunal that could sit on appeal over elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.<\/p>\n<p>The judge ordered Chikwedu to pay INEC N250,000 as costs \u201cfor bringing such a frivolous and meaningless suit to this court for adjudication.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">INEC and the Attorney-General of\u00a0 the Federation, AGF, were the first and second defendants.<\/p>\n<p>The judgment followed Chikwedu\u2019s suit alleging that the governor did not meet the constitutional requirement to be declared winner of the March 9, 2019, gubernatorial election of Imo State.<\/p>\n<p>The judge observed that there was no connection between the plaintiff\u00a0 and the defendants jointly or severally.<\/p>\n<p>Taiwo held: \u201cIf I may ask, was he (Chikwedu) a contestant in the Imo Governorship Election in 2019? He only described himself in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the affidavit in support of the originating summons thus: \u2018(1) That I am the plaintiff in this suit and an indigene of Ikeduru LGA of Imo State. (2) That by virtue of my position, I am conversant with the facts of this case.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese averments are not enough to cloth the plaintiff with the toga of locus standi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a notorious fact that the issue of the Imo State governorship election has been litigated up to the Supreme Court; the Apex Court in the land\u00a0 on January 14, 2020 and it was held among other things that Senator Hope Uzodinma is the winner of the Governorship Election of Imo State and that the Certificate of Returns be issued to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis court cannot shut its eyes to these facts. This case has no legs to stand on. It is dead on arrival and nothing can be done to resuscitate it. I need to state that cases of this nature ought not to be permitted to see the light of day if not for the constitutional provision as to fair hearing.\u2018\u2018<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am of the well-considered view that parties should desist from bringing such time-wasting suits to court knowing full well that they have no chance to succeed. The time of the court is very precious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case is dismissed in its entirety. This is the judgment of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The applicant had sought a declaration that Uzodinma\u2019s election as Imo governor was unconstitutional and illegal for violating Section 1 and 179 of the 1999 Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>He also sought, through , his counsel F. Aliuna, an order compelling INEC to withdraw Uzodinma\u2019s Certificate of Return and conduct a fresh gubernatorial election in Imo State within 90 days from the date of the nullification.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has dismissed a suit seeking to nullify the election of Senator Hope Uzodinma and his Deputy, Prof Placid Njoku and to declare the&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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