The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Okezie Ikpeazu as Abia State Governor.
Two out of the three-man panel of the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the appeal court which struck out the appeal of Uche Oga, challenging the nomination and election of Ikpeazu.
The appeal was dismissed for lacking merit.
Speaking after the judgment has been delivered, Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Walter Onnoghen, described the case as a storm in a teacup, saying it should not have been entertained in the first case.
He warned politicians to desist from trying to influence the judiciary, stressing that the court will investigate issues of security breaches in the case.
Onnoghen wondered why some politicians would attempt to bribe court employees to know who is writing the judgment or what the judgment is.
Recall that the battle for the Abia State governorship began after Justice Okon Abang of the federal high court Abuja, delivered a judgement in June 2016, sacking Ikpeazu as Abia State Governor and ordering the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC to issue Uche Ogah a certificate of return as the authentic governor.
Justice Abang held that Ikpeazu never qualified to run for the party primaries in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP as a governorship candidate because he tendered fake tax papers during his screening.
However, Governor Ikpeazu appealed the decision and the Appeal Court struck out Justice Abang’s ruling, describing it as a “rape of democracy.”
“After reading through the judgement several times, I was amazed at how the trial Judge arrived at his conclusion of forgery against the appellant when there was no evidence of forgery. To say the least, his findings are ridiculous,” said Justice Ogunwumiju, the head of the five-man panel of Appeal Court justices that entertained the case.
“From whatever angle one looks at the judgement of the trial Judge, the decision of his court was grossly erroneous,” he added.
Dissatisfied with the Appeal Court judgement, Ogar filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, but the appeal was today struck out for lacking in merit.