THE SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS EMENIKE’S CANDIDACY FOR GOVERNOR OF ABIA.

Ikechi Emenike is the All Progressives Congress’s candidate for governor of Abia State in the general election of 2023, according to the Supreme Court.

Emenike was declared the loser of the APC governorship primary race in Abia by an Abia High Court in May 2022.

In Abia’s contentious primary election, Emenike had been proclaimed the victor, but Justice O. A. Chijioke overturned the decision. Emenike and Uche Ogah were chosen as the party’s candidates for the governorship in parallel primaries.

The judge ruled that Emenike lacks the locus standi to run in the primary election because he had already been suspended from the party in the lawsuit brought by Mr. Chinedum Nwole and two others.

The court held that by continuing to participate in the primary election, Emenike and Chief Donatus Nwakpa, the APC State Chairman, had violated article 9.3 of the APC constitution.

Justice Chijioke ruled that their participation in the party’s most recent national convention as well as its ward, local council, state, and recent state convention was unlawful.

The judgment stated, in part, “That by virtue of the suspension of the first defendant (Emenike) as a member of the second defendant (APC), the first defendant cannot participate in any way at all in the activities of the second defendant, including the second defendant’s scheduled ward, local government, state, and national congresses, which are scheduled to take place between 2021 and 2022.

The first defendant is prohibited from representing himself in any way as a legal member of the APC while he is still subject to the party’s constitutionally mandated suspension, according to the following decree of injunction.

As a result, the judge instructed the party’s National Working Committee to stop contact with the pair in light of the ongoing court injunction.

Emenike was fired on November 11 by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who also instructed the electoral umpire to recognize Ogah as a legitimately elected candidate.

APC and Emenike filed separate appeals against Nyako’s decision after being dissatisfied with the judgment. In the meantime, Dan Eke, a different candidate, appealed the decision recognizing Ogah’s candidacy.

However, Emenike was officially recognized as the party’s nominee in December 2022 by the Abuja court of appeal.

Details to come…