S’Court Reserves Judgment in Abia Governorship Tussle

Tobi Soniyi

The Supreme Court will on May 12, 2017 deliver final judgment that will put to rest the long drawn legal tussle on the Abia State governorship seat.

Contenders to the seat are the incumbent Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and his challenger, Dr Samson Okechukwu Ogah, who are both of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but locked in a legal battle on who was the qualified candidate for the party in the 2015 governorship election.

The acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, fixed the appeal for judgment after hearing submissions from parties involved in the matter yesterday.

Arguing Ogah’s case, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) urged the court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which last year upheld the nomination of Ikpeazu.

Iziyon submitted that the case of his client was that Ikpeazu was not qualified to have contested the 2015 Abia governorship election on the platform of PDP on the grounds that he supplied false information in the document used to secure clearance for the election.

The counsel maintained that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it based its judgment in favour of the governor on the effect that Ogah founded his case on perjury against the defendant and that the perjury being a criminal matter was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Iziyon insisted that his client never raised any criminal matter against Ikpeazu but only claimed that the respondent submitted false information in his form CF001 which by provision of section 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 made him ineligible to stand for election

In his objection to the appeal, Ikpeazu represented by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.

Olanipekun argued that the trial court miscarried justice in its judgment because the PDP guidelines and its constitution which would have aided the court to arrive at a just conclusion were not before the court.

He also argued that the trial judge based his judgment on extraneous considerations and that his judgment was rightly upturned by the Court of Appeal.

Olanipekun said the trial court went out of its way when it assumed that Ikpeazu did not pay tax because the tax papers were dated Saturday.

He also said it was wrong of the trial court to have persecuted and crucified Ikpeazu for the offence of perjury, adding that being a public servant, his tax was deducted from source and confirmed by the Abia tax officers in their affidavit evidence.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) represented by Mr. Alhassan Umar also called for the dismissal of the appeal to allow the judgment of the Appeal Court in the matter to stand.

Justice Onnoghen who led four other Justices of the court, after listening to arguments from all parties, announced that the court would give final judgment in the matter on May 12.

Ogah who came second in the governorship primary election of the PDP of 2014, had approached the Federal High Court to nullify the nomination and sponsorship of Ikpeazu on the grounds that he, Ikpeazu, supplied false information in relation to his tax papers.

Justice Okon Abang had in his judgment agreed with Ogah and nullified the nomination of the governor and replaced him with Ogah as the qualified PDP candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Abia.

The Appeal Court however, in its judgment disagreed with Abang and set aside the his judgment

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA, Alex Otti, who was granted permission to join the appeal was however not heard because his lawyer was yet to file processes before the court.