Rochas Okorocha |
Governor Rochas Okorocha’s move to secure an interim injunction to
compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue him
a Certificate of Return as the Senator-elect for Imo West Senatorial
District suffered setback on Friday.
The Governor had in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/296/2019, which he filed
before the Federal High Court in Abuja, insisted that the electoral
umpire lacked the statutory powers to withhold his Certificate of
Return.
According to him, he was validly elected to occupy the senatorial seat.
Okorocha asked the court to declare that INEC acted in error when it
refused to recognise him, even after the returning officer had declared
him winner.
Okorocha, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju,
SAN, at the resumed proceeding on the matter on Friday, prayed the court
to order INEC to in the interim, issue him Certificate of Return
pending the determination of the suit.
However, though INEC was listed as the sole defendant in the suit,
four candidates that participated in the senatorial poll, approached the
court to be joined as interested parties.
The applicants, through their respective lawyers, said they were
vehemently opposed to the issuance of Certificate of Return to Okorocha.
Those that secured leave of the court to file processes to counter
Okorocha’s suit were Mr. Nwachukwu Clement of KOWA Party, Precious
Nwadike of United Progressive Party, UPP, Dr. Uche Ibeh of Labour Party,
and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
The court had earlier joined Hon. Jones Onyeriri of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, and Senator Osita Izunaso of APGA as interested
parties in the case
All the parties that were added as 2nd to 7th Defendants in the
matter, notified the court that they would filed preliminary objections
to challenge the competence of Okorocha’s suit.
Likewise, INEC, through its lawyer, Mrs. Wendy Kuku, also queried the
jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit which it argued raised
post-election issues.
Justice Taiwo .O. Taiwo adjourned the case till next Tuesday while
directing all the parties to file and exchange their processes before
the date.
The court held that it would no longer admit any interested party that failed to approach the court before the adjourned date.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News