Supreme Court Declares Ugochinyere PDP Reps Candidate for Ideato

Following months of litigation and counter-litigations, the Supreme Court, has declared Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as the authentic candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, for the Ideato north and south federal constituency elections next year.

In a judgment on Thursday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the appeal was not prosecuted within the time stipulated by the law, a development that robbed it of the jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

The apex court inferred that there must be an end to litigations and recklessness. Hence, the court ruled  that there were no grounds put before it, to nullify the ticket of the party in the custody of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, having fulfilled all the provisions of the law and complied with stipulated guidelines.

Speaking to one of the counsels in the suit, Ibe Ezenwa Esq., he said the Presiding Judge struck out the appeal filed by the appellant, George Igbo for being a mere academic exercise.

He said: “Just as his appeal at the Court of Appeal was struck out for being incompetent, having not complied with certain provisions of the law. For instance at the Court of Appeal, he did not compile his record of appeal or file his brief within the stipulated time. Ikenga Imo then filed a notice of preliminary objection and the Court of Appeal struck out his appeal.”

He noted there was a stipulated time frame for filing appeals and George Igbo and his group waited until it almost elapsed before they filed their application.

Consequently, the Supreme Court deemed the application as unserious and struck out the appeal for being academic and inconsequential under the circumstance.

Accordingly, the apex court declared Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as the validly nominated and authentic candidate of the PDP for the Ideato Federal Constituency seat election come February 2023.