By Adeleye Kunle
The authenticity of Chief Ikechi Emenike as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Abia State in 2023 was confirmed yesterday by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.
The appellate court, presided over by Hon. Justice B. Georgewill, dismissed the appeal filed by Mr. Uche Ogah, former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, and his supporters, who sought to nullify Emenike’s candidacy.
In its decision on the appeal No. CA/OW/269/2022: APC & ANOR Vs Ikechi Emenike & ANOR, the appellate court dismissed the appeal for lack of merit and endorsed an Abia State High Court decision that recognized Emenike as the APC’s genuine candidate.
Following Emenike’s election as Abia APC’s governorship standard-bearer in a primary election conducted by a panel appointed by the party’s national leadership, Ogah and his cohorts made concerted efforts to derail him.
The former minister, who claimed to have held a “direct primary and won” despite having no authorization or supervision from the APC national secretariat, was now running for governor.
Ogah went from court to court, attempting to prevent the party from submitting Emenike’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and to have him recognized as the party’s governorship candidate. All of his efforts were futile.
Emenike, for his part, had approached the court to determine whether, after winning the governorship primary, the party could refuse to forward his name to INEC, especially since a court of competent jurisdiction had dismissed his purported suspension from the party orchestrated by Ogah.
On this basis, Justice Benson Anya, in his judgment in suit No HUM/31/2022, resolved the matter in favor of Emenike on June 24, 2022.
However, Uche Ogah and members of his camp were dissatisfied with the judgment and filed “a questionable appeal” in which they used the name of the party.
On July 19, 2022, Ogah’s attempt to file an appeal against the judgment as an interested party was denied.
However, his lawyers transferred the appeal from Owerri Division to Abuja, and the appeal was heard on July 31, 2022, and the judgment was delivered 33 days later.
The Appeal Court Abuja has thus confirmed that the APC was correct in endorsing Chief Emenike as the party’s gubernatorial candidate in court and then submitting his name to INEC for recognition.
The appellate court also questioned why anyone, especially a busybody, would come to the court of appeals to seek an impossibility.
Meanwhile, the Abia APC leadership has declared the Appeal Court decision a victory for all party members.
Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, Chairman of the Abia APC, told Tracknews that the party recognizes the right of any aggrieved member to seek redress in court, but that now that the appellate court has rendered its decision, the appellants should accept it.
Ononogbu extended an olive branch to disgruntled party members once more, telling them to “come home and let’s hold hands together and build the party to win the 2023 election.”
“We should not be fighting amongst ourselves.” “Our fight should be in the political arena against those who are holding Abia State back,” he said, adding that “the collective goal of Abia APC, which is to rescue and develop Abia, should take precedence over every personal interest.”
