Emenike Awarded Costs as Court Lambasts Frivolous Petitions

Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, has again dismissed a suit challenging the membership of All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship  candidate, Ikechi Emenike.

Justice Evelyn Anyadike affirmed Emenike’s membership and awarded him N500,000.

The dismissal brings to 21 cases Emenike has won of 24 filed by his opponents in the governorship primary.

The plaintiffs, Chief Brutus Agbai and three others challenged Emenike’s membership on the grounds of a purported suspension, which had been legally settled in Emenike’s favour.

Justice Anyadike lambasted the plaintiffs for abuse of court processes with frivolous suits.

The judge decried the activities of faceless groups and their penchant for inundating the courts with frivolous pre-election cases.

She noted that plaintiffs rush to court and file frivolous cases without evidence .

The judge awarded N500, 000 against the plaintiffs to serve as deterrent to frivolous litigants.

The court ordered that the cost must be paid by the plaintiffs jointly and severally to APC and Emenike.

The plaintiffs anchored their claims on the May 26 judgment of Justice O. Chijioke of the High Court, which upheld Emenike’s suspension even when it had been quashed.

Justice Chijioke, who was misled, did not take into cognisance that the matter had been settled in the judgment of the High Court at Umunneochi of November 4, 2021.

Emenike and two others filed a suit before Justice Benson Anya of the court, where the suspension was  nullified and they were affirmed APC members.

Most of the suits against Emenike were on the issue of his supposed suspension, which had been resolved prior to his victory in APC governorship primary of May 26.