The Federal High Court (FHC) Abakaliki Thursday nullified the candidacy of Barrister Silas Onu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from the Saturday bye-election in Ebonyi South senatorial district.
The district will on Saturday elect the person to replace David Umahi in the Senate.
About eight political parties would participate in the bye-election but the Court in Abakaliki stopped the candidate of PDP from contesting as it said the party failed in fulfilling the guidelines as required by INEC.
Responding, Barr. Onu accused INEC of “acting the script writing by the ruling political party in the state.”
Onu in a statement described the FHC ruling as “a contrived judgement” and that his party will appeal the judgement.
“Today, we received a contrived judgment from Justice Ngajiwa of the FHC Abakaliki that @OfficialPDPNig did not give @inecnigeria 21 days Notice of Congresses for the Bye-Election that INEC itself gave less than 21 days notice for these congresses.
“It is interesting that INEC Abakaliki is the one arguing about none issuance of 21 days Notice to them. The REC, who is an active APC agent, deliberately refused to attend our activities even with notices given to them. They monitored our primary election and asserted so. Yet, justice Ngajiwa chose to ignore plethora of superior court decisions on internal party affairs, even the recent Supreme Court’s decision on Plateau state. He pretended not to know that this is a bye-election and also that he doesn’t understand internal party affairs.
“I have always been of the opinion that a judge only gives bad judgment for one or two reasons – either he is manifestly incompetent or unashamedly corrupt. Whichever the reason, a bad judge has no place on the bench.
“The obvious design of the judgement given 2 days to election is to create confusion in the process and ensure that our teaming supporters are discouraged from voting – it is sad that a judge will make himself available for such a hatchet job. The conduct of the judge is beneath the hallowed chamber he sits in and a disgrace to the entire judicial community and legal profession.
“While we acknowledge that the judgment is contrived and deliberately done for political reasons, we are filing our notice of appeal immediately to ensure that we legally continue our participation in the election. Our supporters are called on to come out in their numbers and vote for PDP on Saturday 3rd February, 2024.
“The FHC is not the final court in pre-election matters and as such our participation is sacrosanct and our votes will count,” the statement reads.
