An Appeal Court sitting in Enugu State has dismissed the appeal challenging the Federal High Court judgment nullifying the candidature of Prince Lawrence Eze as the Enugu East senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the just concluded 2019 general election.
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Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Enugu Federal High Court had on February 19, 2019 sacked Prince Eze as the candidate of APC, having been in the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party when the APC primary that purportedly elected him as it’s senatorial candidate was conducted.
Subsequently, the court ruled that the plaintiff in the suit, Princess Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha who came second in the APC senatorial primary held on October 2, 2018, was the rightful candidate since Uchenna Ezemba, who won the primary had voluntarily stepped down.
Not satisfied with the decision of the lower court, Eze appealed the judgment.
But the Appeal Court while delivering its judgment on appeal on Thursday, held the judgment of the Federal, sacking him.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice I. I. Agube, JCA and endorsed by Justice J.O.K. Oyewole, JCA and Justice A.S.Umar, JCA, the court ruled that Lawrence Eze was never a candidate in the APC primaries held on October 2, 2019 and so could not have emerged the APC senatorial candidate.
The court described as “phantom” Eze’s claim that he participated and won the APC primaries, when he actually participated in the PDP primary where he got 23 votes to loss to the former governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Namani.
The court said, “The imposition of the Appellant as the Candidate of the APC for the Enugu East Senatorial District General Election of 2019 even when he was a member of another Political Party(the PDP) was the height of crass impunity and violation of Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) as well as INEC and the APC Guidelines for the conduct of Primary Elections for the nomination or selection of its Candidate”.
“The APC, particularly in this State, must be warned not to plunge itself into the self-same miasma or quagmire of political confusion and impunity teleguided by money bags and Godfathers that characterized the conduct of primaries by the PDP that has brought the latter almost to its knees.
“If the change mantra of the APC must be anything to go by, there must be strict adherence to the democratic principles and ethos as entrenched in the Electoral Act, the INEC Guidelines and indeed the Party Guidelines in the conduct of Primary Elections for the nomination of Candidates to fly her Flag at the General Elections and such process must exhibit patent transparency, equity and justice”, the court declared.
The court while dismissing the appeal, took judicial notice of an earlier judgement in Appeal NO. CA/E/EPT/125/2019 between Kingsley Godwin Uduji and the APC & Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) delivered on April 12, 2019 which held that there were no primaries conducted by the Enugu APC for candidates for the National and State elections held in February/March 2019.
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