Justice
Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court Abuja has struck 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wrong in law for their names to be withdrawn from INEC’s list.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.
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