Justice Adeniyi
Ademola of the Federal High Court Abuja has ruled out the suit
instituted against senators Stella Oduah and others over the legitimacy
of their candidacies in the 2015 National Assembly elections in the
State.
The
Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), have asked the Federal Court in Abuja to dismiss
a legal action challenging the validity of the primary election of PDP
that produced Senators Andy Ubah, Stella Oduah and others as candidates
for the 2015 National Assembly elections.
The
electoral body and PDP claimed that the legal action instituted by
Senator Annie Okonkwo and 43 others is a gross abuse of the court on the
grounds that the issues raised by the plaintiffs had already been
resolved by the Supreme Court.
Okonkwo
and 43 others had through their lawyers; Chief Asam Asam SAN dragged
INEC, Ubah, Oduah and 16 others who are lawmakers in the National and
Anambra State House of Assembly before the Federal High Court praying
the court to invalidate the nomination of the defendants.
The
plaintiffs also applied for an order of the court restraining INEC from
accepting the nomination of Ubah and his colleagues in the national and
state assemblies on the ground that they were not nominated by the
state executive committee of PDP led by Mr. Ejike Oguebegu.
The
plaintiffs claimed that since Oguebegu led state PDP committee
conducted primary election, nominated them and their names published by
INEC, it was wrong in law for their names to be withdrawn from INEC’s
list.
They
demanded in their suit that any purported removal of their names from
the INEC list violated provisions of the law and should be set aside
while their names should be restored.
However, in the adoption of final addresses on Wednesday
before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, INEC in its opposition to the suit
claimed that the case of Okonkwo and other plaintiffs had been overtaken
by a Supreme Court judgment delivered on January 29, 2016 by Justice
John Iyang –Okoro.
Counsel
to INEC Dr. Onyeachi Ikpeazu (SAN) while adopting the final address of
the electoral body, told justice Ademola that the case of the plaintiffs
constituted a gross abuse of court process since the issue in
contention had already been resolved by the highest court in the land.
INEC
claimed that in the judgment of the Supreme Court, Justice Okoro made
it clear that the power to conduct primary election for nomination of
candidates for national assembly elections is vested in the national
executive committee of a political party and not in the state executive
of any party.
In
the instant case, INEC claimed that the fact that the national
executive committee of the PDP conducted the primary election for
nomination of national assembly members from Anambra state was not in
dispute, adding that it was wrong of the plaintiffs to be claiming to be
PDP nominees for the 2015 national assembly election because their
primary elections was unlawfully, illegally and unconstitutionally
conducted by Anambra State chapter of PDP under Ejike Oguebegu.
The
counsel further submitted that the plaintiffs were just asking the
Federal High Court to have a head-on collision with the Supreme Court
which he said will not be in the best interest of the judiciary and
litigants.
He therefore urged
Justice Ademola to decline the invitation of the plaintiffs to dabble
into an issue that had already been resolved by the apex court by
dismissing the suit for lacking merit.
Also
in its final argument the Peoples Democratic Party National Secretariat
represented by Emeka Etiaba SAN canvassed for the dismissal of the suit
on the ground that the right organ of the party vested with power
conducted the primary election that produced the nomination of the
national law makers from Anambra State for the 2015 election.
PDP
also submitted that the purported claim of the plaintiffs as the right
candidates to be in the national assembly cannot stand in law because
the purported primary election conducted by the Obuebegu led state
executive committee was not known to any law.
Counsel
for senators Andy Uba, Stella Oduah and other defendants in the suit
adopted the position of INEC and PDP and urged the judge to dismiss the
suit.
