2023: Abia APC guber ticket: Emenike triumphs in 19 suits

High Chief Ikechi Emenike has so far won 19 of the 23 suits filed against him seeking to snatch the Abia State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket from him.

The suits against Chief Emenike, who, unarguably, is the most sued governorship candidate in Abia, are believed to have been filed by surrogates, challenging his candidacy since he emerged from the party’s governorship primary of May 26, 2022.

At a consultative meeting in Bende last August, Emenike had urged his supporters not to be worried by the plethora of suits seeking to deny him the governorship ticket or nullify the primary which produced him, assuring them that he would triumph.

The judgement of a Federal High sitting in Umuahia on Friday which dismissed a suit seeking to nullify the primary election that produced him (Emenike) as the governorship candidate of APC in Abia State, seems to buttress the guber candidate’s conviction that the suits against him would fall like a pack of cards; as the last 19 suits were all disposed in his favour.

The case decided last Friday was filed by Chief Daniel Eke, one of the APC governorship aspirants.

Delivering judgement in the suit with No. FHC/UM/CS/96/2022, the presiding judge, Justice Evelyn Anyadike dismissed the case on the ground that the plaintiff has no locus standi to challenge the outcome of the governorship primary election which he did not participate in.

“This suit is hereby dismissed and there is no need to look into the merits,” she declared.

Eke had gone to court claiming that the primary election conducted by the national leadership of APC on May 26, 2022, did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act; as well as the party’s own guidelines.

Apart from listing APC, Emenike and INEC as defendants, the plaintiff also joined the immediate past Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Uche Ogah, who purportedly conducted his own primary and awarded himself a “governorship ticket.”

The plaintiff further claimed that the governorship primary that produced Emenike was conducted through indirect process while Ogah merely wrote results, claiming that he conducted direct primary without the party’s and INEC’s involvement.

But Justice Anyadike held that all the claims of the plaintiff were a bundle of contradictions since he claimed that there was no primary election and that he did not participate in any of the “parallel primaries” but in same breath, stated that he witnessed the primary in which Emenike emerged

The court spotted contradictions in the plaintiff’s claims as he had admitted in a supporting affidavit that he participated in the indirect primary conducted by the Committee sent by the national leadership of APC.

Eke claimed he was not aware of the primary but after discovering the venue at Chidiebere Park Umuahia, he scored 16 votes when the result was announced.

In its defence, the first defendant (APC), averred that the plaintiff was not a party member, was not cleared for the party primary, and therefore lacked the locus to challenge the outcome of the May 26, 2022 governorship primary for Abia.

Justice Anyadike held that the court has no business with the issue of party membership which is a “domestic affair of political parties.”

However, she ignored the issue of whether or not the plaintiff was screened and cleared for the primary since his name appeared in the result sheet of the said May 26 governorship primary for Abia.

Justice Anyadike acknowledged that the prerogative of choosing a candidate resides with political parties, adding that the courts could only interfere when that becomes subject to non-compliance with relevant laws and guidelines.

But she held that “it is not enough for the plaintiff to claim that he was a governorship aspirant without proving that he went through the process from expression of interest to actual voting.”