The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday struck out Senator Joseph Obinna Ogba appeal seeking to revisit judgment on Ebonyi State People Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship contest that had been resolved in favour of Chief Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi on September 14, 2022.
A panel of the Apex Court presided over by Justice Amina Adamu Augie struck out the application after Chief Paul Erokoro,SAN, counsel to Ogba suddenly withdrew the request.
When the application was mentioned at the court session on Friday , Erokoro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria had attempted to move the application by stating the nature of the application that is requesting the Supreme Court to review its earlier judgment which recognized Ifeanyi as the PDP governorship candidate.
But, he noticed that the mood of the court was unconducive to entertain such an application as the court had held in previous rulings that an application of that nature is frivolous and should attract fines. He therefore apply to the court to withdraw the processes filed on behalf of his client.
Consequently, Justice Amina Augie struck out the request.
Before the withdrawal, counsel to Chukwuma Ifeanyi, the respondent Chief Chris Uche, SAN, had vehemently expressed his opposition to the request of the factional governorship candidate on the grounds that it constituted a gross abuse of the Supreme Court.
Uche who led a team of senior lawyers in the matter, had prayed the Court to uphold its finality policy as the highest Court in the land, adding that any attempt to grant the request of Ogba will not augur well for the judiciary.
The senior lawyer pleaded with the Apex Court to turn down the request on the grounds of being frivolous, unmeritorious, and a strange invitation that must not be honoured by the Court.
Recalled that the Supreme Court had on September 14, 2022 in its final judgment in an appeal marked SC/CV/939/2022 affirmed Chukwuma Odii Ifeanyi as the authentic PDP governorship candidate having emerged from a primary election conducted by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The Court had struck out an appeal challenging Ifeanyi nomination on the grounds that the issue of nomination of candidates for elective office is an internal affair of political parties and that no court has jurisdiction to entertain it.
Joseph Obinna Ogba who was not a party in SC/CV/939/2022 had returned to the same court seeking a review of the September 14 judgment, by his own appeal.