Ex-Health minister loses case against Ebonyi gov

former Ebonyi State governor, Martin Elechi

A Federal High Court in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, has struck out a suit seeking to invalidate the November 1, 2014 congress of the Peoples Democratic Party leading to the party’s primary that produced Governor Dave Umahi as its candidate for the April 11 governorship election in Ebonyi State.

Umahi had thereafter won the election on the platform of the PDP and sworn in as the governor of the state.

But a former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, had approached Justice Maureen Oyetenu, challenging the PDP congress and the primary that Umahi won.

Chukwu, who claimed that the PDP’s governorship primary in Ebonyi State conducted on November 8, 2014 did not comply with the Electoral Act, had prayed the court to declare Umahi’s emergence as the PDP governorship candidate for the state as null and void.

In a judgment on Tuesday, however, Oyetenu struck out Chukwu’s suit, holding that the failure of the former Health minister to participate in the said primary robbed him of the locus standi to challenge the legality of same.

The judge, however, faulted the argument of Umahi’s counsel, Chief Offordile Okafor (SAN), that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

According to the judge, the court was competent to entertain complaints from a party’s primary conducted in breach of due process.

Responding to the court’s verdict, Okafor said it was victory for democracy.

However, the counsel who appeared for Chukwu in court on Tuesday, Nnaemeka Ajiukwu, said his client was going to appeal the judgment.

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Ajiukwu, who held the brief of Chukwu’s lead counsel, Chief Awa Kalu(SAN), said, ‘’The judge has done her best at this stage but we will go higher; we will appeal the judgment because our client’s forms passed through screening. He properly aspired for the governorship primary until he was muscled out of the race.”

But addressing journalists after the judgment, Umahi, who spoke through the state’s Commissioner for Information, Dr. Emmanuel Onwe, said the people of the state were delighted with the judgment, saying the will of the people had prevailed.