Wild jubilation broke out at the secretariat of Labour Party in Abuja when the Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed Senator Athan Achonu as the Labour Party governorship candidate for the November 11 governorship election in Imo State.
Achonu is aiming to become the first physically challenged governor in the country through the off-season election taking place in the state.
An aggrieved aspirant in the last LP primaries, Basil Maduka, had objected to Achonu’s candidature at both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal but the apex court dismissed the case on Thursday.
The case was thrown for lack of locus standi.
A panel of five justices, led by Justice Iyang Okoro, also chided the appellant for abusing the court process and wasting the time of the courts.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja alongside lawyers of the party, the National Legal Officer of the LP, Kehinde Edun, hailed the Supreme Court justices, saying they did justice to the case.
He said, “The justices discovered the case lacked locus standi and threw it out. They also chided the lawyers of the petitioners for wasting their time.”