The Court of Appeal, sitting in
Abuja, Thursday nullified the election of Ned Nwoko as the Senator representing
Delta North Senatorial District.
The court, in its ruling, said
the case instituted at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, which
culminated in the recognition of Nwoko as the winner of the election by the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was wrongly filed.
The appellate court said that the
matter ought to have been brought at the lower court before the expiration of
14 days from the time of the incident that occasioned the suit.
Besides, it ruled that the
failure of the applicant at the lower court to file the case before the
expiration of 14 days showed that the case had become statute barred and the
lower court lacked jurisdiction to handle the case in the first place.
In its words, “As at the time the
matter was instituted at the Federal High Court, the case was statute barred.
We set aside the decision of the Federal High Court and strike out the case”.
It would be recalled that INEC
had withdrawn the certificate of return it issued to Nwoko’s challenger,
Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, following the Federal High Court decision.
With the appeal court verdict,
Senator Nwaoboshi will now be recognised as the senator-elect for the district.
Also, suffice it to say that
Messrs Nwoko and Nwaoboshi are both of the PDP and had contested for the ticket
of the party in the primaries.
It later won the senatorial
election in the district with Nwaoboshi as its candidate.
However, after the first high
court ruling, INEC withdrew the certificate issued to Nwaoboshi and presented
same to Nwoko, a decision that presently is invalidated given the current
appeal court ruling.
Details later…
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