Press Release By Egondo Michael, a Legal Practitioner on the decision of the Court of Appeal on Abia Governorship Election

…..Truth Will Always Prevail

As being expected, the Court of Appeal siting in Abuja, yesterday delivered its judgment on the appeal filed by Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu against an earlier Federal High Court judgment which sacked him as Governor of Abia State. The Appeal Court however upheld the appeal filed by him.

We in the Uche Ogah group are clearly dissatisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal. Our observation is that the decision of the court was based merely on technicalities. The issues we raised which were addressed by the lower court were not addressed by the Appeal Court judges. So we are heading to the Supreme Court. We have the believe and hope that we will get justice at the Supreme Court which has always encouraged the prevalence of substantial Justice over technicalities.

The technical issues raised and decided by the Court of Appeal judges were neither here nor there. They raised the issue that the originating summons was not signed. The point to note is that there was a signature. Signature is a factual thing. It is either it is there or is not there. Mind you, this was a matter that had initially gone up to the Supreme Court and the issue of signature was never raised by the defendants or learned justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Nobody contended that signature was not on the originating summons before the matter was subsequently referred back to the lower court for expeditious trial.

The issue also raised by the Court of Appeal Judges that the matter should have been commenced by way of Writ of Summons instead of Originating Summons is also neither here nor there. This is a pure documentary evidence matter and the lies on the documents are very visible on the face of the documents, therefore, the process was rightly commenced by Originating Summons. The issue of procedures on commencement of actions are already established by decided case laws most especially by the apex court.

I believe that most of the issues the Court of Appeal judges raised are Issues that should not have mattered in a matter that has to do with serious matter of public interest like this one in which a candidate for the governorship position of a State filed tax documents that were full of lies. We will certainly want the Supreme Court to have a final say on this issue and set the records straight once and for all.

Our next move is to get the certified true copy of the Court of Appeal judgment before raising the grounds of appeal which from evidence shall be many.

The battle is not over yet, so we advice all supporters of Dr Uche Sampson Ogah not to be discouraged or lose hope. We enjoin them to remain calm and law abiding. They must never in anyway be downcast because the battle to liberate Abia State is not over yet. Our assurance to them is that justice will surely prevail very soon in God’s name.