From Fred Itua, Abuja
The move to nullify the emergence of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as member-elect for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency of Imo State by Labour Party (LP) candidate, Paschal Obi, has suffered another defeat as the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri dismissed the suit and upheld the primary election venue and outcome that produced him.
The judge, Justice BO Quadric, described in the judgment that the suit is a more academic exercise and lacking in merit as issues of party primaries are pre-election matters that have a 14 days time frame from the date of occurrence for it to be challenged.
He noted that the suit by LP candidate Obi is now statute-barred and can no longer be reopened. The court also went further to say that going by decided Supreme Court decisions and amendments to the constitution, only a party that participated in the primary can bring an action to challenge the primary venue and another political party lacks the merit and locus to institute such an action.
The issue of the venue of the Primary that produced Ikenga has been challenged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and LP in the past for which Ikenga defeated them all.
