- As pressure mounts on court proceedings
Legal moves by outgoing Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release his Certificate of Return as Senator-elect for Imo West Senatorial District on Friday suffered a minor setback.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/296/2019 and filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Governor Okorocha maintained that INEC lacked the statutory powers to withhold his Certificate of Return after being validly elected to the senatorial seat.
He therefore urged the court to declare that the Commission acted in error when it refused to recognise him, even after the returning officer had declared him winner of the Senatorial district poll.
However, at the resumed proceedings on the matter on Friday, April 5, 2019, Governor Okorocha, through his legal team led by Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), prayed the court to order INEC to, in the interim, issue him Certificate of Return pending the eventual determination of the suit.
Though INEC as the electoral umpire was cited as the sole defendant in the suit, four candidates that participated in the senatorial election approached the court and prayed to be joined as interested parties.
The applicants, through their respective lawyers, said they were vehemently opposed to the issuance of Certificate of Return to Okorocha.
Among those that secured leave of the court to file processes to counter Okorocha’s suit are Mr. Nwachukwu Clement of KOWA Party; Dr Uche Ibeh of Labour Party (LP); Precious Nwadike of United Progressive Party (UPP); and Senator Osita Izunaso of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The court had earlier joined Hon. Jones Onyeriri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as an interested party in the case.
All the parties that were added as 2nd to 7th defendants in the matter, notified the court that they would filed preliminary objections to challenge the competence of Okorocha’s suit.
Similarly, INEC, through its lawyer, Mrs. Wendy Kuku, also queried the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit which it argued raised post-election issues.
In his intervention, Justice Taiwo .O. Taiwo adjourned the case till Tuesday, April 9, even as he directed all parties to file and exchange their processes before the new date.
Also, the court held that it would no longer admit any interested party that failed to approach the court before the adjourned date.
Recalled that the Commission had declined to issue Certificate of Return to Okorocha who was the All Progressives Congress (APC), senatorial candidate after the Returning Officer alleged that he was under duress to Okorocha as winner of the February 23 National Assembly election.
The Returning Officer, Professor Francis Ibeawuchi, had declared Okorocha as the winner of the poll, having polled 97,762 votes ahead of his closest rival, Mr Jones Onyereri of the PDP, who had 68,117 votes. Ibeawuchi claimed that he announced Okorocha as the winner to save his life and that of his household, insisting however that the election ought to have been declared inconclusive. – With agency reports
