The supreme court on Thursday affirmed Ikechi Emenike as the Abia governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election.
A five-member panel of the supreme court led by Tijani Abubakar affirmed the December 2022 judgement of the court of appeal.
The apex court dismissed the appeals by Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah who is a former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development.
The Abia APC had on May 26, 2022,conducter parallel governorship primaries which produced Uche Ogah and Emenike as candidates of the party.
However, on May 26, the APC declared Emenike the winner of the governorship primary in the state.
Aggrieved by the party’s decision, they approached the court seeking redress.
The Abia state high court in its decision affirmed Emineke as the authentic candidate.
Justice Nyako removed Emenike and declared Ogah as the party’s gubernatorial candidate on November 11.
Not satisfied by the judgemt, Both APC and Emenike filed separate appeals challenging the verdict.
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Another aspirant,Dan Eke also filed an appeal challenging the judgement of the trial judge that recognised Ogah as the authentic candidate.
The Abuja division of the appellate court in December 2022 affirmed Emenike as the party’s candidate.
The panel of justices affirmed that the primary election that produced Emenike was valid.
The court held that Ogah’s appeal was not useful.
Justice Jauro said “There is nothing useful for the appellant to ask in the appeal. The appeal is therefore dismissed,” the apex court panel said.
The judge noted that the judgement shall be binding on the two other appeals on the matter.
Today’s decision by the Supreme Court has confirmed Mr Emenike as the APC candidate for the Abia state governorship election.