The Supreme Court on Friday voided the candidature of Uche Nwosu as the Governorship candidate of the Action Alliance in the 2019 general election in Imo State over double nominations.
The apex court in its judgement delivered by Justice Adamu Augie, upheld the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division. The court had, about two months ago also upheld the decision of the Federal High Court which voided his candidature.
A chieftain of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Mr Uche Nnadi, had dragged Nwosu to the Federal High Court where the court held that he was not qualified to stand for the election based on the fact that he already had a valid ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Not satisfied with the decision of the high court, Nwosu approached the Court of Appeal to put the decision to further test.
The Court dismissed all issues raised by Nwosu in his appeal.
Not also satisfied with the decision of the court of appeal, he approached the apex court to upturn the decision of the lower courts.
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The Supreme Court in its judgement yesterday dismissed Nwosu’s appeal, saying that he cannot benefit from his iniquity, adding also that the suit is not stature barred.
Justice Augie said, ”The appellant cannot be allowed to benefit from his own iniquity. The action is not caught up by limitation of time. This case rest on the issue of illegality and this court cannot be used to enforce illegalities. This appeal is hereby dismissed”.
In its judgement over a month ago, the court of appeal had described the act of double nomination as “immoral.”
In his reaction shortly after the judgement was delivered, Chairman of the APP, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said the implication is that all the votes given to Nwosu at that election are void votes.
”Further, even in the Court of Appeal or subsequently, the Supreme court decides to dabble into calculation of majority of votes cast in at least two-thirds of all the local governments in Imo State, Uche Nwosu’s votes will not be taken into account because, in law, they are taken as not to have existed in the first place”, he said.
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