By; MKPUMA ENYINNA, Abakaliki
The Supreme Court has declared Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii as the authentic governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State in the forth coming 2023 governorship election.
The court further struck out the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which had declared Senator Obinna Ogba, as the candidate.
In the lead judgement delivered by Justice Lawal Garba, the five- man panel headed by Justice Amina Augie noted that senator Ogba did not have the right of Appeal because he was not part of the suit when the matter came up at the trial court in Abakaliki, which upturned Ogba’s candidature, which further necessitated Ogba, approaching the Court of Appeal.
That the party rescheduled and conducted a fresh primaries on June 4 and 5 after its Initial primaries in Ebonyi on May 28 and 29 that elected Odii a governorship candidate.
The court ruled that the primary elections that produced Sen. Obinna Ogba and other candidates were illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Fatun Riman said the repeated primaries in the state on June 4 and 5 was not monitored by the Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to Riman, the rescheduled PDP primaries in Ebonyi is null and void.
It would be recalled that the Federal High Court in Ebonyi had earlier nullified the rescheduled People Democratic Party’s (PDP), primaries in Ebonyi and declared Dr Ifeanyi-Chukwuma Odii as authentic gubernatorial candidate of the party for the 2023 polls.
