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Appeal Court reserves ruling in Andy Uba, APC guber case

By Ameh Ochojila, Abuja
03 February 2022   |   4:09 am
A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, reserved judgment in the appeals seeking to set aside the December 20, 2021 judgment of the Federal High Court...

Andy Uba (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, reserved judgment in the appeals seeking to set aside the December 20, 2021 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja voiding Andy Uba’s participation in the November 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Stephen Adah, who led the three-man panel of jurists, took the decision after counsel to parties adopted their written briefs on the matter.

Having heard the appeals, the panel reserved judgment in each of the appeals for a date to be communicated to parties.

In the appeals, APC and Uba are contending that the Federal High Court in Abuja erred in law in holding on December 20 that the APC did not conduct a valid primary and therefore, did not present a valid candidate for the election.

The first appeal in which George Moghalu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Emmanuel Andy Nnamdi Uba are respondents was marked: CA/A/CV/13/2022 filed by the APC through its counsel, Mahmud Magaji (SAN).

While adopting the appellant’s briefs, Magaji prayed the court to allow the appeal and set aside the earlier judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Counsel to Moghalu, Chris Uche (SAN), who also adopted the first respondent’s brief, prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the judgment of the Federal High Court, while lawyers to INEC and the APC filed no briefs.

In the second appeal, marked: CA/A/CV/36/2022 filed by Uba, appellant’s lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu, urged the court to allow the appeal and reject their earlier judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Aliyu said the appellant’s were arguing that a High Court in Awka, Anambra State upheld the primary conducted by the APC, and that there are two conflicting judgments on the issue of whether or not the APC conducted a valid primary, which produced Uba as the party’s candidate for the election.

Uche, who represented Moghalu, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and prayed the court to uphold the earlier judgment of the Federal High Court.

In the Federal High Court ruling of December 20, 2021, Justice Inyang Ekwo, held among others, that Uba was not a candidate in the November 6, 2021 having emerged from APC’s illegally conducted primary.

Justice Ekwo held that Moghalu (an APC aspirant for the election) succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct valid primary in which Uba claimed to have emerged as the party’s candidate.

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