A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has disqualified all House of Assembly candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, from participating in the forthcoming elections.
This followed a suit instituted against them by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The case with suit no. FHC/PC/CS/109/2022 was presided over by Hon. Justice Adamu Turaki Mohammed.
Some of the House of Assembly candidates of the NNPP who were present at the ruling include; Chile Ogutu (Obio-Akpor constituency 1), Eze G. N. Onunwu (Obio-Akpor constituency 2), Dan Asonye (Omuma constituency), Victor Michael Ohunda (Emohua Constituency).
In an interview with newsmen , counsel for the PDP, Dike Udenna said confirmed that, “the court has just delivered its judgement in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party, upholding our contention which is that the NNPP are not entitled to participate in the 2023 general elections in respect of the House of Assembly positions.
“All 14 of their candidates have been disqualified today (October 26) and the court has directed that INEC should exclude their names from the list of candidates for that election.
“In our view, it’s a good one because they did not comply with the requirements of the law, they did not hold their primaries within the constituencies and they did not hold proper primaries. So on that basis, the court has vindicated us today and held that they are not entitled to participate in the elections.”
Counsel for the NNPP, Monima E. Karibi-Whyte said he will advise his client on the next legal step to take.
“The judgment has been delivered; it is not in our place to justify or critic the judgment of the court.
If we have any issue with the judgment of the court, the only thing we can do is to appeal to the Court of Appeal or thereafter to the Supreme Court. Yes, the judgment was read, it was taken and from what the court said, they have disqualified the House of Assembly candidates with the NNPP.
“We will brief our clients, we will discuss with them and we will consider our options, that is not to say that we are not eager in view of the fact that election petition is generic and it is timed.
This court had 180days to give its judgment, it gave its judgment in good time. We will go to the Court of Appeal, if we decide to do that which has 60days, it obviously means that our time has started moving, we should take full advantage of it.”
