Justice Babatunde Quadri of the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, yesterday, dismissed a suit seeking to nullify the emergence of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Ideato South and North Federal Constituency in Imo State.
The Labour Party (LP) candidate in February 25 election, Pascal Obi, had filed a suit against Ugochinyere over the primary election that produced him as PDP candidate for the House of Representatives seat.
Obi asked the court to disqualify Ugochinyere on the basis that his primary election was conducted in Owerri, the state capital, and not within the Federal constituency.
In his ruling yesterday, Justice Quadri dismissed the suit and upheld the primary election venue and outcome.
The judge said the suit was more of an academic exercise that lacks merit.
According to him, issues of party primaries are pre-election matters that have a 14-day timeframe from the date of occurrence for it to be challenged, adding that the suit by LP is now statute-barred and can’t be reopened again. He maintained that going by Supreme Court decisions and amendments to the Constitution, only a party that participated in the primaries could challenge the outcome of such election.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) had challenged the issue of venue of the primary election that produced Ugochinyere in the past up to the Supreme Court, which affirmed his emergence as the PDP candidate.
In the February 25 general election, Ugochinyere polled 13,026 to defeat his closest rival, Obi, who got 5,696 votes. APC’s Abazu polled 2,368.
