In a recent ruling, the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has upheld the election and return of Michael Onyinye Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the member representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. This decision comes as a result of a legal battle that ensued following the initial election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Ugochinyere, a member of the PDP, as the winner of the election with 13,026 votes. His closest rivals, Pascal Chigozie Obi from the Labour Party and Chika Benson Abazu from the APC, secured 5,696 and 2,368 votes, respectively.
Chika Benson Abazu, the APC candidate, expressed dissatisfaction with the election outcome and filed a petition before the tribunal (marked: EPT/IM/HR/10/2023). In his petition, he argued that Ugochinyere was not qualified to participate in the House of Representatives contest. Abazu also contended that all the votes credited to the PDP candidate were “wasted votes” and alleged that the PDP conducted its primary election outside the constituency, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act.
In a unanimous decision in September, the tribunal declared that Ugochinyere’s nomination by the PDP was invalid due to the location of the primary election, which was held outside the constituency. The tribunal cited section 84(5)(c) of the Electoral Act 2022 and held that a valid candidate could not have emerged from an invalid primary election. It ordered a supplementary election in 55 polling units, excluding the PDP from participating.
Ugochinyere and the PDP appealed this decision to the final Court in these matters. In a consolidated appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the issues surrounding the venue of the primary election had already been litigated up to the Supreme Court and could not be re-opened. The three-man panel, led by Justice Abubakar Ali Babandi Gumel JCA, ruled that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to revisit matters foreclosed by the Apex Court. The Court of Appeal also stated that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to litigate pre-election matters, ultimately affirming Ikeagwuonu’s election.
In a separate development, the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos reinstated Thaddeus Atta, a Labour Party member, as the representative of Eti-Osa Federal Constituency, overturning a previous order for a re-run election following petitions from PDP’s Bankole Wellington and APC’s Ibrahim Obanikoro.
