Appeal Court Bars INEC, Imo PDP From Conducting Rerun Primary

The Court of Appeal in Owerri, Imo State, has barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from conducting a rerun primary election of the PDP for Aboh Mbaise/ Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency.

The immediate past governor of the state, Emeka Ihedioha, is from Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala.

A Federal High Court in Abuja had, last week, nullified the PDP primary election for the federal constituency, which produced Albert Agulanna as the winner and ordered a rerun within 14 days.

But Justice Rita Pemu, who sat on an appeal filed by Uzoma Ugochukwu against PDP, INEC, Bede Eke and Albert Agulanna, ordered that the proposed rerun primary election be halted pending the hearing and the determination of the applicants’ appeal before the Supreme Court.

In giving orders, the Judge said, “Accordingly, it is hereby ordered as follows, that the order of this honourable court made on January 20, 2023, ordering a fresh primary election for Aboh Mbaise/ Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State pending the hearing and final determination of the applicants appeal before the Supreme Court on the propriety of the said order of fresh primary be and is hereby stayed.

“Consequently, by this order, the first and second respondents are hereby restrained from enforcing in any way whatever the judgement of this court delivered on 20th of January, 2023, by way of conducting a fresh primary election for Aboh Mbaise/ Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency.”