Ebonyi 2023: Supreme Court sacks Nwachukwu, declares Nwite authentic PDP candidate for Reps
From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has declared Barr. Emmanuel Nwite as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Ezza North/Ishielu Federal House of Representatives for the 2023 general elections.
The Apex Court directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to enlist Mr Nwite as the PDP flag bearer for the race.
Prior to the court ruling, Mr Obinna Nwachukwu, had been enlisted by INEC as the candidate of the party for that position, but Mr Nwite challenged his enlistment in the court in a suit no.SC/CV/1353/2022.
Nwite had asked the court to declare that the primary of May 28, 2022, that produced Mr Nwachukwu was illegal as the committee that conducted the primary election was not properly constituted; hence the party cancelled the primaries and fixed it for 4th June, 2022.
Mr Nwachukwu, INEC and the PDP were among the defendants in the matter.
In his ruling on Friday, Justice Lawal Muhammed Garba of the Supreme Court, set aside the judgements of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, and consequently declared Mr Nwite as the authentic candidate of the PDP.
The counsel to the plaintiff, Barr. Friday Ogazi, reacting to the judgement described it as a welcome development.
Ogazi said: “The Court has given a beautiful judgement, a correct and truthful one in favour of Barr. Emmanuel Nnabuike Nwite and declared him as the authentic candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP for Ezza North/ Ishielu federal constituency for the House of Representatives in the 2023 general election.
“The journey has been a long one, what actually happened was that, there was a purported Primary election that was held on 28th May 2022, by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. That election wasn’t a good one, because there was a lack of quorum by the electoral officers who supposed to do the accreditation was not there.
“Some people purportedly conducted the PDP Primaries for the House of Representatives on 28th May; 2022, and the Party actually cancelled it and they communicated INEC of the cancellation. They rescheduled a fresh primary election on the 4th of June 2022. That 4th of June election was dully held, and Barr Emmanuel Nwite was declared the winner.
“But, all of a sudden, they started turning things upside down, the party submitted the name of another person, one Obinna Nwachukwu. The reason they gave was that the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki nullified the Primary election that was held on 5th June 2022, which did not affect the House of Representatives election held on 4th June 2022.
“They kept on saying that every other primaries held on 4th and 5th was cancelled that involved other candidates, which is not true. The Primary election of 4th June has no problem, it was that of the governorship primary election held on 5th, June 2022, which Senator Obinna Ogba won was cancelled.
“And so, the Federal High Court here, relied wrongly on the so called suit No. 88 and the Court of Appeals also relied wrongly on that, and also wrongly on the Anyichuks judgement at the Supreme Court. If you look at that Anyichuks judgement at the Supreme Court, that judgement did not decide anything concerning the House of Representatives, Senate or House of Assembly Primary elections. It decided only governorship.
“And so, when we approached the Supreme Court, the court agreed with us that our position is the correct one. Nobody challenged the cancellation of the 28th May Primary elections, they all accepted it because they all know that the Primaries held on 28th May, 2022 was not a good one.
“With this, the Supreme Court has declared and directed the Independent National electoral commission, INEC, to replace and ensure that only the name of Barr. Emmanuel Nnabuike Nwite be placed as the dully elected candidate of PDP for the Ezza North/Ishielu federal constituency, in the 2023 general election” he stated.
