Court Reserves Ruling On Nwaoboshi’s Appeal Against Nullification Of His Candidacy

The Court of Appeal sitting in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja has reserved judgement on the appeal brought by senator Peter Nwaoboshi who is challenging his nullification of his candidacy of the PDP as Senator-elect.

In a resumed hearing on Wednesday, Counsel to Nwaoboshi, Tony Idigbe ( SAN ) in opening his submission, urged the court to jettison the April 3rd 2019 Federal High Court judgement against Nwaoboshi as the suit which the lower court relied on was filed out of time and therefore statute- barred.

But in his counter submission, Ned Nwoko’s counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN) asked the court to dismiss the appeal as it was defective, null and frivolous.

Qouting diverse legal authorities and landmark judgements, Nwoko’s counsel said Nwaoboshi’s lawyer relied on issues that are not known to law and never emanated from the High Court judgement.

He noted that the extraneous grounds stated in the submission by counsel to Nwaoboshi was like telling a lie against the lower court .

The lawyer said the issues put forward were taken before an FCT High Court and not Federal High Court.

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The learned counsel, Raji who spoke with ornate brilliance amidst pin-drop silence and admiration, said Nwoko’s case was not statute-barred, because time limit concerning the matter was legally predicated on 3 grounds – PDP Primary election, decision of the party and INEC action of name publication.

He explained before the appeal court that the crux of Nwoko’s case was rooted in the wrongful action of INEC to have published Nwaoboshi’s name based on the incongruous decision of the PDP as consequence of a primary election freely won by Ned Nwoko.

He said the Action of wrong publication of Nwaoboshi name by INEC instead of presentation of Nwoko’s name is the issue for determination and cannot be statute barred as the relief Nwoko filed was far ahead of constitutionally required time limit.

In conclusion Nwoko’s lawyer expressly asked the court to dismiss Nwaoboshi’s appeal for lack of merit and uphold the judgement of the Federal High Court in favour of Nwoko.