Abia guber tribunal dismisses APC’s petition

FOR “negligence” and a “lack of diligence in prosecution,” the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Abia State, Nyerere Chinenye Anyim, have lost their case at the state’s governorship election tribunal.

The tribunal dismissed their petition challenging the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

And piqued by the incessant squabbles in mainline political groups in Anambra State, some stakeholders from various parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP) and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the state have defected to Hope Democratic Party (HDP).

Reading the verdict, the tribunal chairman, Justice Usman Bwala, said that Anyim’s petition exhibited negligence and lacked diligence in prosecution. He ruled that the petitioners disregarded and failed to comply with the relevant sections of the Electoral Act in prosecuting their petition.

Counsels to the respondents (Ikpeazu, PDP and INEC) had urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition. However, the petitioners and or their counsels were not in court, neither did they communicate the reason(s) for their absence to the tribunal.

INEC counsel, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), drawing the tribunal’s attention to the Electoral Act, urged it to invoke the provisions of the relevant sections, which he said made it mandatory for the body to dismiss the petition following the failure of the petitioners to appear and prosecute their petition.

Also, counsel to PDP, Henry Balogu, submitted that the petitioners and their counsels were quite aware of the yesterday’s sitting but deliberately chose to be absent. He, too, urged the tribunal to strike out the petition.
Stakeholders defect to HDP.

At a steering meeting in Awka at the weekend, they regretted that leadership squabbles in political parties in the past 16 years have created the false impression that indigenes could not organize themselves politically.

Consequently, they charged Sam Osita Oraegbunam, who was appointed the pro-tem chairman, to “make HDP a party to rekindle hope in the democratic processes in the state and ensure that the ideals of one man one vote guides party decisions.”

Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, Oraegbunam said he would adhere to the four-point mandate given him by the stakeholders to make HDP the real party for the masses.

Stating that he has always believed in the grassroots and masses-oriented political party, he pledged to ensure that all those that would emerge as executive committee members – from wards to state level – do not aspire to any elective or appointive positions before their tenures expire.

According to Oraegbunam, who disclosed that the National Chairman of the party, Ejiro Moses, has ratified his appointment, “no candidate for any election should be predetermined, and discipline must remain a cardinal point in the membership of the party.”