Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
A Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has nullified the September 30, 2018 governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, which produced Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru as winner and the party’s candidate in the 2019 general election.
One of the APC’s dissatisfied governorship aspirants, Chief Victor Ochei, had instituted legal action praying the court to cancel and invalidate the said primary election.
Among others, the former speaker of the state House of Assembly prayed the court to invalidate the results of the said APC primaries and declare that the list of delegates used at the primaries was not that envisaged by the consent judgment granted by court.
He also told court that he did not as an aspirant get any list of delegates prior to the said APC primaries.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba in his judgment ordered the cancellation of the APC governorship primaries that produced Chief Great Ogboru as the party’s governorship candidate.
He said that four of the five reliefs sought by the plaintiff succeed while “relief No 4” was not granted due to the effusion of time.
“All the reliefs sought in this suit are similar with those for which Justice Adegoke pronounced judgment on, so grant reliefs 1,2,3,5. But relief 4 is refused because the governorship election is over and the relief is spent”, the judge pointed out.
In arriving at the judgment Justice Dimgba said that the Federal High Court has one jurisdiction and as such cannot be seen giving discordant judgment on the same or similar case.
He said, “having considered the decisions reached by the Federal High Court in the case of Cyril Ogodo, which has similar reliefs and the fact that some of the defendants in this suit are the same, the court has decided to follow the decisions.’’
