{"id":25735,"date":"2019-08-19T18:56:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/?p=25735"},"modified":"2019-08-19T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:56:11","slug":"uche-nwosu-tribunal-case-suffers-set-back-as-fed-high-court-disqualifies-him-as-aa-guber-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/?p=25735","title":{"rendered":"Uche Nwosu Tribunal Case Suffers Set Back .As Fed High Court Disqualifies Him As AA Guber Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The ongoing governorship tribunal case Chief Uche Nwosu is pursuing against Emeka Ihedioha, on Monday suffered a serious setback, even as he\u00a0\u00a0had earlier went ahead to appear as star witness in the matter he instituted against the PDP winner.<\/p>\n

In what appeared more like a drawback from the case, the court asked that Nwosu\u2019s name be deleted from the list of candidates for the governorship moments after he stepped down as a star witnesses at the Tribunal<\/p>\n

The new twist has undoubtedly affected his continued pursue of the case.<\/p>\n

According to online news obtained by\u00a0Trumpeta<\/i>,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to remove the name of Uche Nwosu as a governorship candidate in the last election held in Imo State.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Inyang Ekwo voided Nwosu\u2019s candidacy on the grounds of double nomination by two political parties, the All Progressives Congress and the Action Alliance,\u00a0in violation of section 37 of the Electoral Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his judgment on Monday, Justice Ekwo upheld the case of the plaintiffs, the Action People\u2019s Party and its Deputy National Chairman, Mr. Uche Nnadi, to the effect that Nwosu\u2019s governorship candidature was null and void on the grounds of multiplicity of nominations as the governorship candidate of both the APC and AA.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Ekwo declared that the nomination of Nwosu by AA as a governorship candidate \u201cis invalid, null and void, having been made at the pendency of similar nomination of the 2nd defendant (Nwosu) by the All Progressives Congress for the same position\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge noted that Nwosu affirmed to be the APC\u2019s governorship candidate in his statement on oath sworn before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge similarly declared that Nwosu \u201chas not been validly nominated by the 3rd defendant (AA) as its governorship candidate for the Imo State governorship election having been made at the pendency of the order of Justice Valentine Ashi of the Abuja High Court recognizing the 2nd defendant as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Imo State 2019 governorship election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe noted that Nwosu participated in the APC\u2019s primary held on October 6, 2018 and was subsequently nominated as the party\u2019s governorship candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile laying claim to the APC\u2019s governorship ticket, amidst stiff opposition from members of the party, he was said to have on October 9, 2018, obtained an order of Justice Valentine Ashi (now deceased) of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, recognizing him as the valid candidate of the party.<\/p>\n

In the midst of this, Nwosu was also offered the ticket of the AA.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelivering judgment on the plaintiffs\u2019 case on Monday, Justice Ekwo said, \u201cThere is no controversy that, on October 6, 2018, the 2nd defendant (Nwosu) had himself nominated as the governorship candidate of the APC.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, there is no controversy that, to secure his nomination by the APC, the 2nd defendant on October 9, 2019, obtained an order of the High Court of the Federal High Court which subsists having not been set aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Ekwo held that Nwosu, through his lawyers, failed to offer any valid rebuttal to the plaintiffs\u2019 evidence that he was nominated by both the APC and the AA, while INEC filed no papers in the case.<\/p>\n

The judge ruled, \u201cIt is illegal in the eyes of the law. No one is allowed to benefit from an illegal act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2nd defendant allowed himself to be nominated by the APC and the 3rd defendant (AA).\u201d<\/p>\n

He, therefore, said,\u00a0 \u201cIt is hereby declared that the nomination of the 2nd defendant by the All Progressives Congress and Action Alliance, the 3rd defendant, is invalid, null and void and constitute a violation of section 37 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).<\/p>\n

\u201cAn order of this honourable court is hereby made directing the 1st defendant (INEC) to remove the name of the 2nd defendant (Nwosu) as the governorship of the 3rd defendant (AA) in the 2019 Imo State governorship election for multiple nomination in violation of the provision of section 37 of the Electoral Act 2018 (as amended).<\/p>\n

\u201cAn order of this honourable court is hereby made restraining the 1st defendant (INEC) from recognizing the 2nd defendant (Nwosu) as the governorship of the 3rd defendant (AA) and\/or any other political party for the 2019 Imo State governorship election<\/p>\n

\u201cAn order of this honourable court is hereby made restraining the 1st defendant (INEC) from giving value to any act done in pursuance of the 2nd defendant purported candidature of the 3rd defendant (AA) and\/or any other political party in the 2019 Imo State governorship election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge earlier dismissed Nwosu\u2019s preliminary objection and picked holes in the defence he and the AA separately filed against the substantive suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cDismissing the preliminary objection, Justice Ekwo ruled that the provision section 285(9) of the Constitution which stipulates that a pre-election case must be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the event being complained of, was not applicable to the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plaintiffs, APP and Nnadi, filed their suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/235\/2019 on February 27, 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Justice Ekwo held that the intention of section 285(9) of the Constitution cited by Nwosu\u2019s legal team was not to make the court \u201cto gloss over all acts prohibited by the Electoral Act\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe added, \u201cIt will mean that section 285(9) of the Constitution is capable, by effect, of allowing a void, illegal or prohibited act to stand and the person behind the act to benefit from the act that is void ab initio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be said that an illegal or prohibited act does not become legal by virtue of being time-barred,\u201d the judge added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also ruled that the suit was not an abuse of court processes since it was filed to seek an interpretation of the provision of the Electoral Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also held that by virtue of the provision of section 37 of the Electoral Act, the plaintiffs, despite that they did not participate in the election, possessed the locus standi (legal right) to file their suit.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing governorship tribunal case Chief Uche Nwosu is pursuing against Emeka Ihedioha, on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frontpage"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","elegant-magazine-featured":"","elegant-magazine-medium":"","elegant-magazine-medium-small":"","elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":""},"author_info":{"info":["Imo Trumpeta"]},"category_info":"Frontpage<\/a>","tag_info":"Frontpage","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25741,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25735\/revisions\/25741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imotrumpeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}