*As court slams N10m fines on Njoku, Okoro over abuse of process
*Declares Oye, Soludo, APGA’s chair, standard bearer
Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Alex Enumah in Abuja
Sequel to the Court of Appeal judgement, last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has relisted Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the November 6 election.
This came about the same time the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal slammed a fine of N10 million on two chieftains of the Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – Chiefs Edozie Njoku and Chinedu Okoro – for bringing before it a suit considered an abuse of court processes.
Also, the Kano State division of the court, had on August 10, 2021 resolved APGA’snational chairmanship dispute in favor of Victor Oye and also upheld the primary election conducted by his leadership, which produced a former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo as the party’s governorship candidate for November 6 gubernatorial election in the state.
A statement by INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Publicity and Chairman, Voter Education, Festus Okoye, stated, “The Commission was served with two judgements of the Court of Appeal (Awka Judicial Division) in respect of the candidature of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the Anambra governorship election.
“The Court has ordered the Commission to recognise and publish the name of Mr. Valentine Ozigbo as the governorship candidate. Earlier, the party had substituted its deputy governorship candidate within the deadline provided by law.
“Accordingly, the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the PDP are as follows: Candidate: Valentine Chineto Ozigbo, Age: 50, Gender: Male, Qualification: FSLC, SSCE, WAEC, BSc., MBA.
“Candidate: Lilian Azuka Enemo, Age: 64, Gender: Female. Qualification: FSLC, WASC, BSc,” INEC stated.
The commission said the final list of candidates would be published on 7th October 2021, as provided for in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election.
INEC said it was also taking time to repair the damage to its facility in Anambra, which it said was extensive, adding that the destruction of movable materials, including 50% of the non-sensitive materials already delivered for the election.
He explained that while the Commission was making efforts to rebuild the physical facilities, it also took a pragmatic decision to distribute the replacement non-sensitive materials from its South East Zonal Stores in Owerri in order to meet the deadlines.
For clarity, it said the non-sensitive materials were the non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 items such as hand sanitizers and facemasks, envelopes, posters, stickers, sellotapes, scissors, liquid gum and other stationery items required mainly at the polling unit level.
Okoye, however, said following a review of the deadlines for the completion of work on the destroyed physical facilities, the Commission was satisfied that the ongoing work would be completed by the end of this month.
Consequently, he said the Commission was now in a position to operate from its office in Awka, where the batching and distribution of all non-sensitive materials would take place.
INEC, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders to continue to cooperate with the Commission for a transparent and credible election in Anambra State.
Meanwhile, Njoku and Okoro, in their joint appeal, had asked the court to resolve the dispute on APGA national leadership in which a judgment had earlier been delivered by the Kano Division of the Court of Appeal.
But in a ruling in the two appeals, Justice Jummai Zankey, held that the Court of Appeal in Abuja has no jurisdiction to entertain the appeals, because the Kano Division has already delivered judgment in the same matter.
The three member panel led by Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, held that the Abuja division of Court of Appeal was bound to follow the decision of its Kano Division.
Justice Zankey said the appeals of the two APGA chieftains amounted to asking the court to sit on appeal over its own earlier judgment.
“It is a settled law that the Court of Appeal, once it gives final decision on any matter cannot go back to the same issue except where there are typographical errors. The proper place for the two appellants to go to ventilate their views is the Supreme Court and not any division of the Court of Appeal,” he said.
Justice Zankey, therefore, proceeded to award N10M against the two appellants to be paid to Sylvester Ezeokenwa and APGA, who were the first and second respondents in the matter.
Also, Justice Hamma Simon Zamani of the Kano division had in his judgment, set aside the judgment of a Jigawa State High Court, which had earlier declared Jude Okeke and Chukwuma Umeoji as APGA’s National Chairman and Anambra governorship candidate respectively.
But rather than approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Appeal court verdict, Njoku and Okoro moved to the Abuja division of the same court over an appeal already resolved by the Kano division.
