Court nullifies rescheduled Ebonyi PDP primaries

Justice Fatun Riman of Federal High Court, sitting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, yesterday, nullified the rescheduled primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held in the state on June 4 and 5, 2022, which produced Obinna Ogba as guber candidate.

Justice Riman declared the said primary election, which also saw to the emergence of other House of Assembly and National Assembly candidates, null and void.

Justice Riman, while giving the judgment in favour of Ifeanyi Odii and those elected with him on May 28 and 29, said that the PDP properly constituted a primary election committee and deployed them for the same purpose, and that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitored the election and returned candidates transparently.

The judge ordered that any other primary election organised by the party, remains null and void.

The presiding judge upheld the primary elections of May 28 and 29, 2020, which saw the emergence of Odii as the governorship candidate of the party.

The National Working Committee of the party had, on May 29, 2022, cancelled the primary elections of the party held on May 28 and 29, 2022.

The party had argued that the primary elections of May 28 and 29 did not comply with the party’s guidelines, adding that the primary election committee members were not properly constituted.

Angered by the cancellation, Odii approached the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, seeking the leave of the court to declare the cancellation of the said primary elections illegal, null and void.

Counsel to Odii, Mudi Erhenede, urged the court to declare that the cancellation of the PDP governorship primary election held in Ebonyi on May 29, 2022, is unlawful, null and void and of no effect, whatsoever, for offending the provisions of the said extant laws referred to above.