The Federal High Court sitting in Warri has upheld the candidacy of Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates that emerged through the primaries supervised by INEC in Delta.<\/p>\n
The presiding judge, Justice Emeka Ewite, in his judgement delivered on Tuesday, struck out the suit filed by the applicant, Mr O\u2019tega Emerhor challenging the validity of the primary that brought Omo-Agege.<\/p>\n
Ewite struck out the suit on the ground of incompetence and lacking in merit, NAN reports.<\/p>\n
He noted that Omo-Agege and Rev. Francis Waive, the winner of the Ughelli\/ Udu Federal Constituency were necessary parties that ought to have been joined in the suit.<\/p>\n
The judge further observed that Emerhor failed to deny the counter-affidavit filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, that it did not monitor the primary for which he purportedly emerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cFailure to deny the counter-affidavit is an admission which required no further proof that INEC only monitored the primaries in which Sen. Omo-Agege emerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cINEC is to supervise or monitor primary elections and not to conduct,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Addressing newsmen shortly after the judgement, counsel to the APC, Mr Lucky Ajokperiniovo described the court verdict as a `landmark\u2019 for the party and all the candidates that emerged legitimately through the primaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a landmark judgment; the court has again reaffirmed the position of the Supreme Court to say that persons who are not joined as parties to a suit are not bind by the judgement given by that court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court struck out the suit filed by Emerhor for incompetence and lack of merit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court said Omo-Agege\u2019s primary elections remain the valid and legitimate primary election conducted by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consent judgement is a judgement of court that is valid and binding on all persons until it is set aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis judgement has given the party huge relief in determining who the senatorial candidate in the 2019 general election in Delta Central,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Also, counsel representing INEC, Mr Robert Emukpoeruo said that the national electoral umpire was neutral and impartial.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the statutory duty of INEC to monitor primary elections and report those who won and their scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report by INEC shows that Omo-Agege won the primaries conducted by the NWC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Counsel to Emerhor, Mr G. C Igbokwe in his remark said, \u201cWe are happy with the judgment.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Omo-Agege, who is the incumbent senator representing the Delta Central at the upper legislative chamber, was re-elected in the recent National Assembly elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal High Court sitting in Warri has upheld the candidacy of Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates that emerged through the primaries supervised by INEC in Delta. The presiding judge, Justice Emeka Ewite, in his judgement delivered on Tuesday, struck out the suit filed by the applicant, Mr O\u2019tega Emerhor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":7675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[127,69,38,251],"class_list":["post-7670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-candidates","tag-court","tag-election","tag-inec"],"yoast_head":"\n