2023: Court overturns verdict annulling Ebonyi PDP primaries

The Supreme Federal Court in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi state, has overturned the verdict of Judge Binta Nyako of the Abuja branch of the Court, who heard the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) primaries of May 28-29, 2022 in Ebonyi, which Dr. Ifeanyi, nullified Chukwuma Odii and other party candidates.

Judge Nyako had annulled the primaries on December 8, 2022 and ordered the party to hold a new one within 14 days.

Nyako’s verdict followed a lawsuit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1319/2021 by Mr. Okoroafor Tochukwu Okorie against the PDP and INEC.

The court agreed with counsel for the PDP that the plaintiff, Mr. Okorie, that the 28th and 29th PDP primaries which produced Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii and other PDP candidates took place in flagrant disobedience to the Court’s order of Appeal, staying the execution of the verdict of the Federal Supreme Court in Abuja, which had named Joseph Silas Onu as chairman of the party in Ebonyi State.

Not satisfied with Judge Nyako’s verdict, the PDP filed a motion to quash the verdict on the grounds that it was fraudulently obtained.

The case with suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1696/2022 was subsequently transferred by the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court to the Abakaliki Division of the Court following Judge Nyako’s refusal of the case, on charges of bias.

Judge Fatun Rima of the Abakaliki branch of the court, who ruled on the case on Wednesday, agreed with PDP counsel Barrister Michael Inya Igbo that the verdict of an Abuja branch of the court ruling on the 28th and 29th PDP primaries in Ebonyi State was obtained through a trick by the plaintiff, Mr. Okorie, and therefore shelved it.

The court also agreed with the PDP attorney that if Judge Nyako had been made aware of the facts and circumstances of the case, he would not have given the verdict in the first place.

The Court further agreed with Barrister Inya Igbo that once a Supreme Court has ruled on an issue, you cannot use any trick to take the case back to a lower court for trial.

The PDP lawyer said: “The PDP had filed a motion to overturn Judge Binta Nyako’s verdict on the grounds that it was obtained through fraud. Yesterday we discussed and the Court in its Wisdom agreed with us that once a Supreme Court has ruled on a matter, you cannot use any trick to take the case back to a lower court for trial.

“The court also agreed with us that if Judge Nyako had been made aware of the facts and circumstances of the case, he would not have rendered a judgment in the first place. So that’s the basis on which that judgment was set aside today.

On why the case was transferred to the Abakaliki branch of the Federal Supreme Court of Abuja, Mr. Inya Igbo said: “The plaintiff, Mr. Tochukwu Okorie, accused Judge Nyako of bias. As a follow up, she now withdrew from the case and returned the file to the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court for reassignment.

“The CJ probably would have investigated the case and seen that the issues leading up to the case came from Ebonyi State and sent it back to the court here in Ebonyi to decide. You know there is a guideline that any pre-election issue should be initiated and handled in the state where those issues arose. This is to prevent courts of different jurisdictions in the country from making contradictory rulings on the same subject.

“The implication of this ruling is that the primaries held by the PDP in Ebonyi on May 28-29, 2022 are valid and lasting. And that Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii and other candidates that emerged from those primaries are the PDP’s valid candidates in the 2023 general election.”

The PDP lawyer said he had no doubt that the Independent National Election Commission would reinstate the names of the PDP’s candidates in Ebonyi State for the general election with the latest verdict.

“I expect that the INEC will obey the judgment of the Court and reinstate the names of the PDP candidates for the general election. The court has confirmed that today and the highest court in the country has also confirmed that.”

Recall that the INEC has removed the names of the candidates for the National Assembly of the PDP from the amendment list it released on January 30, 2022 in its portal.

Commenting on the verdict, the PDP’s legal adviser, lawyer Mudi Erhenede, said the history of the case is such that no court in the country would have allowed the verdict to stand.

“As legal adviser to the PDP, I would like to say that the history of the case is such that no court in the country would have allowed that verdict to stand. If this case came from Abakaliki, where the whole issue started, the judge couldn’t possibly have known that this dispute has reached the Apex Court, which is the wisdom behind today’s ruling, that all pre-election issues must begin in the state where the dispute arose.”

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN STAND