A Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, Tuesday, sacked Prince Lawrence Eze as the Enugu East Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The court presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba held that Eze was not the validly nominated candidate of the party.
In the suit filed by Mrs. Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha, she had contended that having won the party’s primary election, she was the right candidate of the party.
Ogbu-Aguocha said Mrs. Uche Ezemba, having stepped down after winning the primary, the lot fell on her as the 2nd runner up in the election.
She adduced evidences before the court that Eze was not even a member of the party at the time the primary elections were conducted.
Justice Buba in his judgement, agreed with the plaintiff and held that it was a case of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.’
The court lambasted the plaintiff, Eze, for laying claim to what never belonged to him.
This is as justice Buba said there was overwhelming evidence that Eze was still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where he also contested for senatorial primary election.
Buba held that Eze couldn’t have contested for the PDP and the APC primary election at the same time.
He, therefore, ordered that Mrs. Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha should be recognized by the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the rightful candidate for the Saturday election.
In a reaction, Ogbu described it as a “judgement against impunity in the system.”
She added that “the judgment showed that there was justice in Nigeria.I can’t thank the judiciary enough for writers the wrong done to me and so many people in this country.
“The judgment has affirmed what I always believed, which is that I’m the rightful candidate. Justice has been served today and I am very happy, I’m grateful to God.
“I enjoin everybody in Enugu East APC to work together for our victory in the general election on Saturday. I have been campaigning all these while because I know I’m the rightful candidate, if not for the impunity in the system.”
“His candidacy is null and void, it never existed and that’s what the court held today.”
Meanwhile, counsel to the defendant, Barr. Ferdinand Ugochukwu Ukwueze, told journalists that his client would appeal the judgment.
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