2023 Guber : Supreme court declares Ifeanyi Odii as Ebonyi PDP  candidate

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, declared Chief Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in Ebonyi state.

The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-man panel of justices, vacated the judgement of the Court of Appeal that ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognize Senator Joseph Obinna Ogba as flag-bearer of the party for the 2023 gubernatorial contest in the state.

The panel which was headed by Justice Amina Augie, held that the appeal marked SC/CV/ 939/2022, which Ifeanyi lodged before the apex court, was meritorious and deserved to succeed.

A federal high court in Abakaliki had given judgment in favour of Odii, but the Abuja division of the court of appeal had, in its judgment, declared Ogba as the governorship candidate of the party.

Dissatisfied, Odii filed an appeal marked: SC/CV/939/2022 at the apex court, seeking to overturn the appellate court’s verdict.

Reading the lead judgment on Wednesday, Mohammed Garba said Ogba lacked the legal right to have filed an appeal at the lower court.

He said the Abuja court of appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have entertained the suit in the first instance, since Ogba was not a party in the entire proceedings conducted by the trial court.

The judge also said the entire proceedings conducted by the appellant court was found to be without jurisdiction, and he described it as an exercise in futility.

“You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand; it will definitely collapse,” Garba said.