Insists Odii remains PDP guber candidate
Despite Appeal Court’s ruling on who is authentic Ebonyi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate between Obinna Ogba and Chief Ifeanyi Odii, a Chieftain of the party in the state, Silas ỌOnu, yesterday, said the Court of Appeal granted victory to Ogba without benefit, maintaining that Odii remains the party’s governorship candidate in the 2023 election.

Onu, in a statement in Abakaliki, while reacting to the ruling of the Appeal Court, said that with the ruling, the decision on who becomes the guber candidate of the party is on the desk of PDP. He added that the interesting part is that the party is out of time to choose who its preferred candidate is.

He noted that Ogba always wins appeals, but fails to reap any benefit therefrom.

He noted that Ogba won the first appeal but was not declared, noting that a retrial was ordered and, yesterday, the Court of Appeal dismissed the trial court’s judgment without making any positive order for Ogba to benefit from, rather granted him a victory without benefit.

According to ỌOnuụ, the Court of Appeal held that there were two primary elections for governorship in Ebonyi, which held on May 29 and June 5, respectively.

He explained that the Appeal Court went further to hold that where such is the case, the court cannot select, for the political party, the primary election it prefers.

He, therefore, noted that it is up to the political party to decide which of the primaries it want to rely on.

He said: “With the decision of the Court of Appeal today, the decision is on the desk of PDP. The interesting part is that the party is out of time to choose who its preferred candidate is. This is because the time for substitution of candidates has closed and only a positive order directed at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can lead to the change of name already submitted.

“At this juncture, Ogba is out of time to file any action to compel INEC to substitute the name submitted by the PDP.”