The Controversy trailing the Anambra Central senatorial zone took a new dimension Monday as the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has reserved ruling for Thursday March 3, 2016 on an application asking the court to set aside the judgment of December 7, 2015 which nullified the election of Senator Uche Ekwunife.
The rerun is expected to hold on Saturday March, 5, 2016.
In event the application is sustained by the five-man panel of justices led by Justice H. M. Ogunwimuji, the fresh election already scheduled by INEC may be put on hold.
This is also coming after a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja had ordered INEC to include PDP on the ballot for the coming polls.
The Appellate Court presided over by Justice A.H. Yahya had last December ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh election in the senatorial zone within 90 days after nullifying the election of Ekwunife on the basis of improper nomination and sponsorship by her party, the PDP.
But dissatisfied by the judgment and following other judgments by Appeal Court sitting in Abuja as well as the Supreme Court to the effect that issue of nominations and sponsorship of candidates should not be entertained by the tribunal, Ekwunife had returned to the appellate court asking that the judgment ousting her from office be set aside insisting that allowing it to stand would amount to grave injustice.
However, at the hearing of the application, Counsel to Ekwunife, Alex Izinyon in his submission said the judgment ousting Ekwunife remained a nullity as the court lacked jurisdiction to look into the issue of nomination and sponsorship of her candidacy moreso when the same court upheld the elections of Senator Andy Ubah (Anambra South) and Senator Stella Oduah (Anambra North) despite coming from the same “legal embryo”.
“The issue is that we are saying that the court of appeal having decided issue of nomination and sponsorship of candidate as the main issue nullifying the election of Ekwunife, they had no power or jurisdiction to go into that area at all, therefore, if that’s the case, the judgment they have given relating to that is a nullity and should be set aside.
“We are not saying review it, we said they had no power to go into that one because that was the summary of the issue that was determined in that judgment. The other two senatorial districts came up and they were decided the other way round, why should it be an exception, they came from the same legal embryo, same primaries, same political party. Therefore, there was no basis for that judgment against her; now we also said that since the issue has been settled even by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on the Taraba matter.
“When it is sponsorship and nomination, its a no go area for the tribunal and its been affirmed by the Supreme Court. So, if this is the issue,” he said.
On the issue of 60 days as provided in the Electoral Act as a period within which election appeal matters must be dispensed with, Izinyon said the issue at hand had nothing to do with election, insisting that “in law when the law says 60 days, it has to do with when you are doing election appeal proper. We are saying here is that there is no issue about election appeal, The issue before the court now has nothing to do with election, we are not talking about 60 days”.
On his part, Counsel to Chief Victor Umeh, candidate of the APGA in the said election, Chief Patrick Ikweto said the appellate court was being pressurised to set aside its December 7, 2015 judgment and in its place deliver a fresh one almost four months after, a development he said was out of place.
While insisting that there must be an end to litigation, Ikweto asked the court not to sit on an appeal over its own judgment.
Also, the INEC through its counsel, Sulayman Ibrahim, an Assistant Director in the commission’s legal department, Abuja said the December 7 judgment remained final and cannot be revisited u der any guise. He noted that the Rule of the Court as contained in O4der 19, rule 4 made it clear that the could lacked powers to review its own judgment and therefore asked the court to strike out the application.
It could be recalled that Ekwunife had decamped to the APC following Appeal Court’s decision that PDP should not take part in the election. However, her hopes were equally dashed as the APC chose Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor as her candidate for the election.
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