Supreme Court upholds Imo Reps member election

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Nwangele/Isu/Njaba/Nkwerre constituency in the party’s primary election, Barr Nwadike Harrison Anozie, against the election of Ugonna Ozurigbo as the party’s candidate in the 2019 election.

Nwadike had gone to Federal High Court to contest the emergency of Ozurigbo as the party’s candidate in the election.

The court had agreed with him that Ozurigbo did not rightfully emerge as the party’s candidate.

A subsequent appeal to the Court of Appeal by Ozurigbo was upheld, prompting Anozie to file an appeal at the Supreme Court.

The court, presided over by Hon. Justice Bode Rhodes Vivour struck, upheld the preliminary objection raised by the respondents that the suit at the Federal High Court was commenced in disobedience to the rules of the court.

In the appeal numbers SC/1039/2019, SC/1060/2019 and SC/1073/2019 instituted by Barr Anozie against Hon. Ozurigbo and two others, the supreme Court Justices, at the sitting, unanimously agreed that the suit had been commenced wrongly at the Federal High Court and that they didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

The court also held that parties have laboured in vain right from the trial court and subsequently struck it out.