The Supreme Court has upheld the nomination of Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State for next year’s election.
In a judgment on Wednesday, a five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Amina Augie, unanimously upheld the appeal filed by Ifeanyi.
The court set aside the July 19 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which ordered a retrial of the suit between Ifeanyi and Senator Joseph Obinna Ogba on the dispute over who was the actual candidate.
The apex court restored the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on June 7, 2022, which the Court of Appeal had set aside in its July 19 judgment.
The court held that the Court of Appeal was without jurisdiction to have heard the appeal filed by Ogba, because the notice of appeal filed by Ogba on June 17, 2022 was incompetent because he failed to first obtain the leave of court to appeal as an interested party.
The apex court further held that the incompetence of Ogba’s notice of appeal robbed the Court of Appeal the requisite jurisdiction, and as such, all the proceedings conducted amounted to a nullity, including the order made in the July 19 judgment setting aside the June 7 judgment of the Federal High Court, which had upheld Ifeanyi’s nomination.
The apex court also struck out the cross-appeal filed by Ogba.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers