Supreme Court has unanimously upturned the judgement of Court of Appeal which sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
The Court affirmed the election of Ikpeazu as it ruled that his appeal against the judgment of the lower court The Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
A seven-man bench, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, unanimously affirmed the governors’ elections after upholding his appeals against the judgments of the Court of Appeal, which had ordered his removal from office.
The decisions of the Supreme Court put paid to the legal actions initiated against Ikpeazu, who contested the elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party on April 11, 2015, by their arch rivals. Ikpeazu was challenged by All Progressive Grand Alliance’s candidate, Dr. Alex Otti.
The Owerri Division of the appeal court removed Ikpeazu and declared the APGA candidate, Otti, the winner of the election in Abia State on December 31, 2015.
The apex court delivered its judgments at about 9.50pm on Wednesday after marathon hearings which lasted for about 12 hours.
The apex court on Wednesday delivered separate judgments on nine separate appeals and cross-appeals which emanated from the earlier verdicts of the Court of Appeal.
The final judgments were delivered after the seven Justices of the apex court resumed from an hour break, which they took to arrive at their decisions after the hearings..” Justice Suleiman Galadima, who delivered the lead judgment with respect to the Abia State governorship poll, also held that Ikpeazu’s appeal succeeded.
The apex court affirmed the governors’ declaration as winners of the April 11, 2015 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The reasons for the Abia State governorship election was reserved till February 26.
No comments:
Post a Comment