2023: Court reserves judgment on LP candidate’s appeal against his disqualification

The Court of Appeal in Awka, Wednesday, reserved its ruling on the appeal filed by the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for Anambra Central District in Anambra State, Victor Umeh challenging a judgment barring him from taking part in the 2023 senatorial election in the district.

The election will be held on 25 February, about nine days away.

Disqualification

A Federal High Court, Awka, on 27 January, disqualified Mr Umeh from taking part in the election.

The judgment followed a petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the same district, Uche Ekwunife.

Mr Umeh later rejected the judgment and subsequently appealed it at the Court of Appeal, Awka.

Reserved judgmentBut on Wednesday, Olubunmi Oyewole, the presiding judge of the panel of the court, announced the court has reserved its judgment on the matter, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Mr Oyewole made the announcement after counsel to the appellant and respondents adopted their written arguments.

He said the court would communicate the date for the judgment to the parties after going through their written addresses.

Alex Ejesieme, the counsel to the LP and its candidate, who relied on his written appeal dated 7 February, prayed the court to uphold the appeal and set aside the judgement of the trial court for lack of locus standi.

Mr Ejesieme cited a number of judgements on related matters including that of the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt on Suit. No. CA/PH 480/2022, delivered on 29 November on the case between PDP vs INEC and 11 others.

He described the trial court judgment as “rather unfortunate“ in light of the numerous decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on the subject matter.

He also prayed the court to dismiss the preliminary objection filed by the respondents, saying it was ill-conceived.

Adopting his written argument, B.E.I Nwofor, counsel to Ms Ekwunife and the PDP prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and sustain the judgement of the trial court.

BackgroundMr Umeh was a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and had served as the party’s national chairman between 2004 and 2015.

He contested the party’s primary for the district in May, but lost to Dozie Nwankwo, member representing Anaocha/Dunukofia/Njikoka Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

Mr Umeh congratulated Mr Dozie, saying it was the will of the people.

But in early June, he defected to the LP where he emerged as the party’s senatorial candidate for the district.

However, in the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court, Awka, the judge, Hyeladrira Nganjiwa, disqualified Mr Umeh on the grounds of non-compliance with the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Law, saying he did not properly resign from his former party.

The LP candidate claimed he submitted his resignation to the APGA.

But the court held that there was no evidence that his resignation was received by the APGA.

The court held that Mr Umeh’s name was still in the membership register of the APGA as of 30 September 2022 when he contested the LP’s primary.