By Leonard Okachie
Chief Daniel Eke, an All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Aspirant in Abia, says he will continue to fight against the injustice allegedly meted out to him during the party primary elections.
Eke disclosed this in a statement issued in Umuahia and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.
The statement, signed by a Spokeswoman of his Campaign Organisation, Chinonyerem Chijioke, was captioned “Chief Daniel Eke wins at the Court of Appeal”.
It stated, “Eke’s appeal expressly succeeded against the judgment of Justice Binta Nyako of Nov. 11, which declared Uche Ogah the duly nominated gubernatorial candidate of APC.
It added that in its judgment, the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Dec. 23, allowed the appeal, with No. CA/Abj/CV/1297/2022, to succeed as meritorious.
It, therefore, set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, presided over by Nyako.
According to the statement, the Appeal Court maintained that the direct primary that produced Ogah was invalid for not complying with the Electoral Act.
It added that the court nullified Ogah’s candidacy because his direct primary was conducted by the state APC executive “instead of the National Executive Committee (NEC)”.
The court also hinged its decision on the failure by the party to hold a special congress to ratify the direct primary election as stipulated by the Electoral Act.
The statement quotes Eke to maintain that Ogah’s direct primary was “embedded in illegalities”, which no court should allow to stand.
“This is one leg of Eke’s litigation against the governorship primaries of APC in Abia.
“Another leg is that of Chief Ikechi Emenike, who is also wrongly claiming to be duly nominated through an illegal indirect primary election,” the statement added.
Eke alleged “a fundamental infraction” on the part of Emenike’s purported emergence which, he argued, should also never be allowed to stand.
He contended that whereas the party’s NEC opted for direct primary in Abia, Emenike purportedly emerged through an indirect primary election, allegedly not monitored by INEC.
“There was never a time APC conducted delegate election to have produced the delegates.
“The big question is, who are those that elected Emenike at the indirect primary election?
“Before a valid indirect primary election can be conducted, there must first be a valid delegates’ election of the party,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, Eke had approached the Supreme Court in Appeal No. SC/CV/1670/22 to nullify the parallel direct and indirect governorship primaries purportedly conducted by Abia APC on May 26.
He contended that none of them complied with Section 84 of the Electoral Act as well as the APC Constitution and guidelines.
“He has insisted that he will continue to fight for the conscience of the good people of Abia and for elections to follow prescribed laws of APC and Nigeria at large,” the statement added.
It maintained that Eke’s legal battle challenging Ogah and Emenike’s acts of illegalities did not diminish his support for the Presidential Candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Alhaji Kashim Shettima.
“Those having sympathy for APC in Abia are praying that these legal battles do not totally deny the party the opportunity of fielding a governorship candidate in 2023.
“This may also rob off on the votes which the presidential candidate shall poll from Abia.
“Therefore, one will reasonably expect the party’s national leadership to take these matters seriously and bring Eke, Ogah and Emenike to the roundtable for an immediate political solution ahead of the imminent Supreme Court verdict,” the statement maintained. (NAN)
