ABIA 2023: Ogah Celebrates Court Sacking Of Emenike, Says ‘No Hand Can Cover The Sun’

Uche Sampson Ogah, former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, has welcomed his affirmation as the valid governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State by the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Ogah and Emenike had emerged as APC candidates in parallel governorship primary elections held by two factions of the party in May 2022.

But Justice Binta Nyako, in a judgment delivered on Friday, nullified Emenike’s candidacy earlier recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC’s initial recognition of Emenike complied with a judgment of the Court of Appeal Court which affirmed an earlier ruling of the Abia State High Court declaring him as the authentic governorship candidate of the APC.

But Nyako on Friday rendered the decisions of the courts invalid and upheld the direct primary election that produced Ogah as APC’s candidate, having been monitored by INEC.

Ogah had filed a separate suit at the Federal High Court seeking “a declaration that by virtue of Section 84(4) of the Electoral Act 2022, the direct primaries held by the 2nd defendant (APC) and monitored by the 4th defendant (INEC) was in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 on the conduct of primary elections for the nomination of governorship candidate for the 2nd defendant.

“A declaration that having conducted its direct primaries in line with Section 84(4) of the Electoral Act and having had same monitored by the 4th defendant, the 2nd defendant was not at liberty to conduct any other primaries for the nomination of a candidate for the Abia State Governorship contest in 2023.”

In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/95/2022, Ogah further urged the court to order the APC to forward his name to INEC as well as an order directing the commission to drop Emenike and publish his name as the duly elected candidate of the party for the election.

The respondents were Emenike, the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, the party’s national chairman; INEC, and Daniel Eke, who partook in one of the Abia APC governorship primaries.

Following the favourable judgment, the former minister issued a press release on Friday thanking God and the judiciary for “continuously dispensing justice towards the restoration of sanity within our polity”.

His words, “It has been quite a journey leading up to this moment and as no hand can cover the sun, justice has prevailed and all glory must be returned to the creator of the universe, the Lord God Almighty. We were not fazed because one with God is majority, light will always trounce darkness and truth will always prevail.

“At the onset of this episodic distraction, we had to submit ourselves, our victory and candidacy to God and judicial interpretation and intervention as it became apparent that forces of evil were bent on truncating the will of the authentic members of our great party, the All Progressives Congress and our intention towards salvaging our dearly beloved Abia State.

“Yet we are grateful for the advancement of Nigeria’s legal system which continuously dispenses justice towards the restoration of sanity within our polity even as this victory signposts the confirmation that the judicial arm of government remains the hope of the ordinary man. Indeed we are immensely thankful for this outcome and words alone cannot represent our heartfelt gratitude.

“It is imperative that we unite in the bid to change the fortunes of our dear Abia State hence it is our strongest desire to partner with our brothers who put themselves forward in the concluded gubernatorial primary of our great party, the APC, in Abia State and I most profoundly request they come on board as the ship of our party is set to sail on to victory.

“We are indeed grateful to our party members, our teeming supporters, friends, associates, our family members, the great people of Abia State, prayer teams, all men and women of God all over the world who have tarried with us on this journey towards the delivery of this judgement. Today, we begin the movement towards repositioning our great state and changing the fortunes of our people. God is Alive and He alone continues to rule in the affairs of men.”