The Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, has quashed a suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking to disqualify the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Ideato North and South Federal Constituency election, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga, from participating in the 2023 elections.
The ruling party had approached the court to disqualify only Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere on the basis that his primary election was conducted in Owerri, the state capital and not within the federal constituency.
This suit singled out Ikenga Ugochinyere even though all 40 PDP legislative election primaries in Imo State were held at the same time and same venue because of overwhelming security challenge in Imo State and Orlu zone in particular.
Justice M. A. Onyetenu in his judgment declared that the suit was baseless and vexatious and only amounted to meddlesomeness by the Plaintiff since APC as a political does not have any business challenging the primaries of another political party.
The judge further described the primary election that produced Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as proper and in line with the Electoral Act, 2022.
Ikenga Ugochinyere hailed the Nigerian judiciary as truly the last hope of the common man and the bastion of the Nigerian democracy, saying for the eighth straight time he had obtained judicial victory in the race for the Federal House of Representatives.
He also described the judgment as yet another resounding victory for democracy noting that with this hurdle out of the way, he was sure of a tsunami of votes.
The PDP chairman of Ideato South and North, Chief Durukweaku, and Chief ThankGod Okeke while reacting to the judgment and calling on Ideato People to Vote for PDP and Ikenga said that the judgment have reaffirmed the peoples confidence that Ikenga if elected the Representative for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency have the capacity to deliver/effectively represent Ideato people and attract home sustainable infrastructure and other dividends of democracy.
He said “In Ikenga, Ideato People, Igbo race and Nigeria will have a strong voice and courageous defender of democracy, justice and good governance.”
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