Court of Appeal upholds Ifeanyi Ubah’s election as Senator

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the election of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, of the Young People’s Party, as senator for Anambra South Senatorial District.

A five-member panel of justices led by Justice Stephen Adah declared the FCT High Court ruling, which disqualified Ubah over alleged forgery of school certificate, as a nullity.

The panel held that the originating summons was incompetent having been filed in September 2019 outside the date before the judgement of the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal and without a valid stamp and seal of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on September 25, 2019.

An FCT High Court had on 17th January, 2020, reaffirmed its earlier order sacking Ubah as the senator representing Anambra South in the Senate.

Justice Bello Kawu, in the ruling, declined Ubah’s request to set aside the earlier order issued in a judgment delivered by the court on April 11, 2019.

The judge had in the said earlier judgment, sacked Ubah for allegedly submitting a forged National Examinations Council certificate to contest the February 23, 2019 senatorial election.

He had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ubah.

But Senator Ubah faulted the judgement and immediately filed an appeal to challenge the court’s ruling.

In a statement by his Media Aide, Adichie Izuchukwu, Senator Ubah argued that, as provided in electoral Act, the FCT High Court had no jurisdiction, “as the matter in question is a post-election matter which only the Election Tribunal has the jurisdiction to hear and determine.”

The senator further argued that the court had breached his right to fair hearing by refusing to go into any of the issues raised by his lawyers.