The Umuahia Division of the Federal High Court has reserved Friday, October 7, for a judgement in the suit challenging the outcome of the APC gubernatorial primaries held in Abia on May 26.

A governorship aspirant of the party in the state, Dan Eke, is urging the court to nullify the results of the parallel primaries organised by two other governorship contestants, Ikechi Emenike and Uche Ogah.

Mr Eke’s grouse was that the two primaries were not conducted in compliance with the party’s guidelines and Section 84 (14) of the Electoral Act 2020 (as amended).

Joined as defendants in the suit are APC, Messrs Emenike and Ogah, as well as INEC, which recognised Mr Emenike as the candidate of the party for the 2023 poll.

Obinna Nkume, the counsel for Mr Eke, told the court that Mr Emenike adopted an indirect mode of the primary election against the party’s directive for a direct mode.

He also said Mr Ogah’s direct primary was not supervised by the election committee set up by the party’s national working committee.

Mr Nkume, therefore, asked the court to determine the case on its merit and declare the outcomes of the primaries invalid.

Counsels for APC and Mr Emenike, B. C. Nwankwo and H.O. Afolabi, adopted their counter affidavits opposing the originating summons, supported with a litany of exhibits.

In their preliminary objections, they argued that the relief sought by the plaintiff was self-contradictory and lacked merit.

They, therefore, urged the court to strike out the case for incompetence.

Oliver Amuzie, counsel for Mr Ogah, in a dramatic preliminary objection, said both APC and Mr Emenike had no justification for claiming to have won the primaries.

Mr Amuzie said it was ironic for APC and Mr Emenike to allege that the plaintiff did not participate in either of the primaries yet allotted scores to him in their respective results.

He urged the court to discountenance their results as forged, hence should not be relied upon.

The INEC’s defence counsel, Bertha Amadi, said the commission was a neutral and uninterested party but urged the court to throw out the case.

After listening to the submissions, the presiding judge, Evelyn Anyadike, said the court would consolidate all the preliminary objections.

Ms Anyadike, thereafter, adjourned the case to October 7 for judgement.

Addressing reporters at the end of the sitting, the plaintiff said he was confident that the court would grant his relief to have the alleged primaries nullified.

Mr Eke said he was disturbed that the party could not provide a level playing field by conducting a valid primary election for the emergence of the most popular candidate.

He said he was not particularly bothered about the N50 million paid for nomination and expression of interest forms but wanted to ensure that parties were compelled to do the right thing.

(NAN)