Amby Uneze in Owerri
A Federal High Court in Owerri on Thursday nullified wards, local government and state congresses of the Imo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The presiding judge, Justice Lewis Allagoa, in a judgment that lasted for one hour ordered APC “to be responsible, save our democracy by conducting free and fair congresses in Imo State”.
The judge, who dismissed a motion filed by the defendants, insisted that his court had jurisdiction to hear the matter.
He said that the exhibits tendered by the plaintiffs suggesting that there was no ward congress in the state on May 5, was factual.
Allagoa equally said that the recorded “press interview between the state commissioner of police, the state Governor Rochas Okorocha and Senator Osita Izunaso that there was no APC ward congress in Imo State on May 5 was justiciable in law”.
The judge also cited a report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which confirmed that there was no APC ward congress in Imo State on May 5.
The judge said: “APC should go and be responsible and save our democracy. The defendants and the plaintiffs are members of the same political party, APC. There is no victor, no vanquished.”
The plaintiffs, who are a faction of the party loyal to the state governor, had approached the court seeking among other things, a “declaration that the ward congress of the APC in Imo State which was fixed for May 5, was inconclusive and did not hold, since there was no result therefrom”.
The court declared that since the ward congress was not concluded and the result declared, “the defendants cannot organise, conduct or hold LGA congress or any other congress flowing from it as it is only the delegates that will participate in the other congresses”.
