The Federal High Court in Ebonyi has again declared the rescheduled People Democratic Party’s (PDP), primaries in Ebonyi invalid and recognised Dr Ifeanyi-Chukwuma Odii as the authentic gubernatorial candidate of the party for the 2023 polls.
It would be recalled that the party rescheduled and conducted a fresh primary on June 4 and 5 after an initial primary held on May 28 and 29 and produced Odii as a governorship candidate.
The rescheduled exercise of June 4 and 5 produced Senator Obinna Ogba as another gubernatorial candidate of the party.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Fatun Riman, said the repeated primaries in the state were invalid as it was not monitored by the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“The rescheduled primaries was not done in line with the law; we, therefore, recognised the primaries of May 28 and 29 that elected Odii as governorship candidate in Ebonyi and that is our judgment.
However, an Appeal Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered for trial de novo of the suit in respect of the Ebonyi PDP guber ticket by the court of the first instance, Federal High Court, Abakaliki.
The order was made to enable the appellant, who claimed to be an interested party to be heard pursuant to the principle of natural justice expressed in the legal maxim, “audi alterem partem” which enjoins that the other party must be heard.
Mr Mudi Erhenede, counsel for Odii, popularly known as Anyichuks thanked the court for the judgement.
“The court has revisited the suit for a fair hearing and ruled that the rescheduled PDP primaries remain invalid.
“So, the court in his wisdom has ruled that the business of June 4 and 5 primaries was not done in line with the law and of course recognised the party primaries of May 28 and 29,” Erhenede said.
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