‘Glaring Abuse Of Court Process’—Lawyer Reacts As Odii Affirmed Again As Ebonyi PDP Governorship Candidate

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld Chief Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi as the valid governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Ebonyi state, months after the apex court held same view.

THE WHISTLER reported that the Supreme Court had on September 14, 2022, affirmed Dr Ifeanyi Chuks Odii as the authentic gubernatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

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This was after a tussle within the Ebonyi State chapter of the PDP which resulted in a dispute over who the chairmanship and the governorship candidates of the party were.

Odii and Senator Joseph Ogba had claimed that they were the authentic gubernatorial candidates after emerging victorious in different primary elections.

But in a ruling by the Federal High Court in Abakaliki, Ogba’s election was invalidated for contravening electoral laws because it was not observed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The court then upheld Odii’s election.

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Dissatisfied, parties approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, at the time for redress.

The appellate court ordered a fresh trial of the suit before the Federal High Court, Abakaliki but Odii’s lawyer, Chris Uche SAN, proceeded to the apex court for final constitutional interpretation.

A five-member panel led by Justice Amina Augie, passed judgment in Odii’s favor, and upheld his candidacy.

In another turn of events, an Ebonyi indigene, Okoroafor Tochukwu Okorie approached a Federal High Court this year for judgement against Odi.

The case went to Court of Appeal again but was not able to scale through for Okorie as Odii’s lawyer , Uche SAN informed the court that there exists an apex court judgement in favour of his client.

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Reading the judgement on Wednesday, the appellate court described the fresh appeal as an abuse of court process, while slamming a N5 million fine against the appellant.

Reacting after the judgement was delivered, Uche told newsmen that it was surprising for another suit to be instituted against his client notwithstanding that the Supreme Court had already delivered a final judgement on the matter.

He described the fresh suit and judgement of a Federal High Court secured by Odi’s challenger as a “default”, adding that they did not notify the PDP and INEC about the fresh case.

He said the judgement of the apex court was not brought to the notice of the Federal High Court, adding the fresh suit was a “glaring abuse of court process.”

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