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APC Kicks As Court Sacks Abia Gov Candidate
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A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday declared former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, as the duly elected governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Abia.
Justice Binta Nyako, in a judgment, upheld the direct primary election that produced Ogah as APC’s candidate, having been monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Justice Nyako invalidated the candidacy of Chief Ikechi Emenike, who was earlier recognised by IINEC as the party’s candidate for the March 11, 2023 governorship poll.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ogah, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/95/2022, had sued High Chief Ikechi Emenike; APC; Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the party’s National Chairman; INEC and Daniel Eke as 1st to 5th defendants respectively.
In the amended originating summons filed August 22 by his team of lawyers led by D.D. Dodo, SAN, the ex-minister sought “a declaration that by virtue of Section 84(4) of the Electoral Act 2022, the direct primaries held by the 2nd defendant (APC) and monitored by the 4th defendant (INEC) was in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 on the conduct of primary elections for the nomination of governorship candidate for the 2nd defendant.
“A declaration that having conducted its direct primaries in line with Section 84(4) of the Electoral Act and having had same monitored by the 4th defendant, the 2nd defendant was not at liberty to conduct any other primaries for the nomination of a candidate for the Abia State Governorship contest in 2023.”
Ogah, among other prayers, urged the court to direct the APC to forward his name to INEC forthwith as its duly nominated candidate for the 2023 Abia governorship poll.
Delivering her judgment, the judge agreed with the plaintiff (Ogar) and ordered the party to forward his name to INEC as the duly elected Abia governorship candidate for the 2023 election.
Nyako, who invalidated the indirect election that produced Emenike as the party’s candidate, also directed the electoral umpire to recognise Ogah’s name as the duly elected APC’s candidate.
Reacting to the judgment, the Legal Adviser of the state APC, Vigilus Nwankwo, said the Appeal Court had already affirmed Emenike as the duly elected candidate of Abia APC, hence the judgment of a lower court cannot alter the status quo.
“In the eye of the law Ikechi Emenike still remains the candidate of APC in Abia,” he said, adding that the said judgment delivered by Justice Nyako “cannot be enforced or executed until the final pronouncement by the Supreme Court on the subject matter”.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on October 14, 2022 upheld the judgment of the Abia State High Court presided by Justice Benson Anya which had on June 24, 2022 affirmed the candidature of Emenike in Suit No HUM/31/2022: Ikechi Emenike vs APC & 2 ORS.
The Appellate Court gave the affirmation while dismissing the application filed by Obinna Oriaku Eze, seeking to appeal against the judgment delivered on September 2, 2022 by the Appeal Court, Owerri Division in Appeal No. CA/OW/269/2022.
“The law is trite that judgments of the appellate courts bind the court and parties,” Nwankwo said, adding that “the judgment of the Federal High Court cannot override and is not superior to the said three judgments of the Court of Appeal”.
The Punch
Four Nigerian-Americans have won elective positions in the November 3 midterm elections in the United States, while the outcome of another candidate, Segun Adeyina, remained pending in Georgia as votes were being counted.
The winners are Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa and Carol Kazeem, who secured positions in local government and State legislatures across Maryland, Texas, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.
In Maryland, Jawando, the Democratic candidate, won the race for Montgomery County executive, defeating Republican candidate Esther Wells.
Results published by NBC Washington on Wednesday showed Jawando polling 237,383 votes, representing 78.15 per cent, against Wells’s 66,383 votes, or 21.85 per cent, with 72 per cent of the expected votes counted.
Jawando, who previously served on the Montgomery County Council, is the son of a Nigerian father and an American mother. His Nigerian heritage and political career have featured in reports by The Baltimore Banner and The Washington Post.
In Texas, 27-year-old Ezeonu secured a seat in the state House of Representatives for District 101. He had defeated incumbent Chris Turner in the Democratic primary and was the only candidate on the ballot for the November general election after no Republican entered the race.
According to his campaign biography, Ezeonu was born in Onitsha, Anambra State, and moved to Texas at the age of two.
He was elected to the Grand Prairie City Council in 2021 and later became the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
In Washington DC, Owolewa, the Democratic candidate, won an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council.
Local publication – The 51st – reported that Owolewa secured 69 per cent of the vote, against 21 per cent recorded by independent candidate Elissa Silverman.
Owolewa, a pharmacist and son of Nigerian immigrants from Kwara and Osun states, previously served as the District’s elected shadow representative.
The position allows its holder to advocate for Washington, DC, statehood but does not confer voting rights in the US Congress.
Meanwhile, Kazeem, also a Democrat, retained her seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing District 159.
The result of Adeyina’s contest in Georgia had yet to be called as of Wednesday, with votes still being counted.
Democrats, on Tuesday, won full control of the US Congress in a sweeping midterm rout with a landslide of upsets that delivered a crushing rebuke of President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.
The victory handed Democrats both the House of Representatives and Senate, giving them power to block Trump’s agenda and investigate alleged corruption for the last two years of his presidency.
The vote reflected deep anger over living costs, tariffs and Trump’s war against Iran, which has sent fuel prices soaring and compounded dissatisfaction with an already deeply unpopular president.
Trump struck a conciliatory note despite his history of questioning election results, telling The New York Times: “I am absolutely willing to accept those results” and promising to “work with the Democrats.”
But minutes later on social media, the 80-year-old signaled how he intends to deal with Democratic attempts to pass laws, posting a picture of a red baseball cap emblazoned: “VETO.”
The Democrats’ decisive Senate breakthroughs came in Kansas and Iowa, the fifth and sixth Republican-held seats to fall in the extraordinary “blue wave” election night.
In Kansas, Methodist minister Adam Hamilton defeated Republican incumbent Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the reliably conservative state since 1932.
Iowa had not elected a Democratic senator since 2008, again illustrating the scale of the party’s inroads into Republican strongholds.
The upsets followed victories in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Ohio, where voters rejected Republican candidates despite Trump’s intensive efforts to rally his supporters.
Texas was a political bombshell.
Democrat James Talarico ousted a Trump-backed Senate candidate, while Gina Hinojosa unseated Republican governor Greg Abbott, ending decades of Republican control of the state’s top office.
Democrats also protected key Senate seats of their own, including Jon Ossoff’s in Georgia and an open seat in New Hampshire.
Republicans had held a 53-47 Senate majority.
The six-seat Democratic gain proved sufficient for networks to project a takeover despite some races remaining unresolved.
Democrats also captured the House after flipping Republican-held districts in states stretching from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Kentucky, Arizona and North Carolina.
Some victories came in territory Trump had carried comfortably in 2024, despite Republican attempts to shore up House seats by redrawing electoral boundaries.
One bellwether was Indiana, where Democrat J.D. Ford defeated Republican congresswoman Victoria Spartz in a district Trump won by 17 points. Analysts had identified an upset there as a warning of a much wider Democratic advance.
In Georgia, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in US history, while other Democratic gains extended to statehouses across the country.
Republicans had some bright spots in Florida, where Trump-backed Byron Donalds won the governorship, becoming the state’s first Black governor, and Ashley Moody kept a Senate seat.
George Washington University professor Todd Belt called the Democratic advance “a big wipeout and a strong repudiation of Donald Trump and his policies,” citing voters’ concerns about the economy, corruption and the Iran conflict.
Democrats will now be able to block Trump’s legislation, investigate his administration over corruption allegations, the Iran war and immigration enforcement, and use Senate control to thwart judicial appointments and senior nominations.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat expected to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee, warned Republicans on social media: “LAWYER UP.”
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries declared Trump’s MAGA movement “on the run from sea to shining sea.”
Jeffries is also positioned to become the first Black speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes in January, if elected by his colleagues.
For many voters, the central concern was Trump’s stewardship of the economy.
“Rent, groceries, utility bills, and property taxes keep climbing,” 24-year-old Los Angeles voter Taylor Cook told AFP.
AFP
The former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has vowed that his campaign in Sokoto will proceed despite alleged intimidation, declaring that the party will resist any attempt to turn Nigeria into a one-party State.
Atiku stated this on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing the press on developments ahead of the party’s campaign in Sokoto.
He said what is unfolding in Sokoto is not ordinary political competition but a calculated campaign to frustrate the ADC, obstruct its campaign and deny Nigerians the freedom to choose.
“Public facilities that should be available to every political party for legitimate campaign activities have been blocked. Logistical support has been withheld. These are not harmless administrative delays. They are deliberate attempts to deny ADC a level playing field,” he said.
Atiku alleged that the leadership of the Department of State Services was recruiting people to stage protests in Sokoto to create disorder and give the APC-controlled state government a pretext to impose a curfew and prevent the campaign from taking off.
“We know where some of these protesters are assembled: an office behind Zenith Bank on Koko Road. Trucks are stationed there and dispatched to key points, including roundabout. These mobilised protesters are causing gridlock. Commuters are being threatened and, in some cases, beaten,” he said.
He said security agencies existed to protect Nigerians and uphold the law, not to recruit protesters or help a political party manufacture a crisis.
“This is not intelligence work. It is political interference dressed in official uniform. I call on every officer involved to stop immediately and return to constitutional duty of impartial service,” he said.
Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of devoting too much energy to weakening credible opposition and too little to solving the problems facing Nigerians in the last three- and-a-half years.
