Supreme Court Affirms Ifeanyi As Ebonyi PDP Gov Candidate

The Supreme Court has upheld the nomination of Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State for next year’s election.

In a judgment on Wednesday, a five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Amina Augie, unanimously upheld the appeal filed by Ifeanyi.

The court set aside the July 19 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which ordered a retrial of the suit between Ifeanyi and Senator Joseph Obinna Ogba on the dispute over who was the actual candidate.

The apex court restored the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on June 7, 2022, which the Court of Appeal had set aside in its July 19 judgment.

The court held that the Court of Appeal was without jurisdiction to have heard the appeal filed by Ogba, because the notice of appeal filed by Ogba on June 17, 2022 was incompetent because he failed to first obtain the leave of court to appeal as an interested party.

The apex court further held that the incompetence of Ogba’s notice of appeal robbed the Court of Appeal of the requisite jurisdiction, and as such all the proceedings conducted amounted to a nullity, including the order made in the July 19 judgment setting aside the June 7 judgment of the Federal High Court, which had upheld Ifeanyi’s nomination.

The judgment was on the appeal marked: DC/CV/ 939/2022 filed by Ifeanyi.

Justice Mohammed Garba, who read the lead judgment, held that it was mandatory for an interested party, who was not a party on record, to first seek and obtain the leave of the Court of Appeal before appealing a judgment as an interested party.

Justice Garba said: “The failure or omission of the first respondent to first seek and obtain prior leave of court tenders the appeal incompetent.

“The notice of appeal filed on the 17th of June 2022, having been filed without leave, is therefore incompetent.
“In the absence of a valid notice of appeal before the court below, the first respondent lacked locus standi to have appealed the decision of the trial court.

“As a result, I find merit in this appeal. All the proceedings conducted by the lower court were conducted without jurisdiction and hence a nullity,” he said.

He added that since the proceedings have been declared null and void, there was no need for the court to dwell on the propriety of the proceedings.

Justice proceeded to set aside the July 19 judgment and restored the June 7 judgment of the Federal High Court that affirmed Ifeanyi’s nomination.

Justice Garba also struck out the cross-appeal filed by Ogba for lacking in merit.

Other members of the panel are Justice Adamu Jauro, Emmanuel Agim and Tijani Abubakar.