The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, yesterday, reserved judgment on a suit seeking to sack Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State from office.

The appeal, marked CA/A/157/2015, was lodged before the appellate court by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Senator Ayogu Eze.

Eze is praying the appellate court to remove Ugwuanyi from office on the premise that he was not validly nominated by the PDP to contest the April 11, 2015, governorship election. He insisted that Ugwuanyi emerged from a kangaroo primary election he said was conducted on December 8 by some leaders of the party Ugwuanyi.

The appellant, through his lead counsel, Mr. Adebayo Adelodun, SAN, told the court that Ugwuanyi was merely handpicked by some persons at the national headquarters of the party in Abuja, alleging that the purported primary election was organised with fake list of delegates.

Meantime, Governor Ugwuanyi, through his lead Counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, urged the appellate court to dismiss the pre-election case which he said was bereft of merit. Ugwuanyi equally filed an appeal marked CA/A/157b/2015, wherein he challenged validity of the parallel primary election that produced Eze. He argued that Eze lacked the locus-standi to query his ticket since he did not participate in the primary conducted by the National Working Committee of the PDP.

Similarly, the PDP, through its lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, also sought the dismissal of Eze’s appeal. After listening to all the parties, a three-man panel of justices of the appellate court led by Justice Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson reserved its judgment on the matter. The court said the judgment date would be communicated to all the

Source: Vanguard