BREAKING: Tension greets Enugu Labour Party as Supreme Court sets to determine authenticity of Edeoga’s candidacy

Judith Okaibe

The Enugu State Labour Party has again been greeted with distress as the Supreme Court fixes the date to determine the authenticity of Chijioke Edeoga’s guber candidacy.

This is followed by an appeal filed by Chief Evarest Nnaji (Odengene) challenging the decision of the Appeal Court that declared Edeoga the guber candidate of the Labour Party after the Federal High Court in Abuja had earlier dismissed him as the guber candidate for his inability to provide the receipt of his said nomination form, waiver forms and other payments he claimed to have made to the party.

Odengene in pursuit of what has been described as miscarriage of justice, is in the Supreme Court, asking the apex Court to set aside the judgment of the Appeal Court and either declare him the candidate of the Enugu Labour Party or direct the party to conduct a fresh primary election with him as the sole aspirant. The Supreme Court on Wednesday, fixed February 27th as the date to hear the appeal by Nnaji.

Evarest had challenged the decision of the Appeal Court based on three grounds:
On one of his grounds for appeal at the apex court, Odengene said the judgment of the Appeal Court was made without hearing his brief. He said that he was served in his village and not his known regular address. This he said was cunning and made to achieve a particular objective because there’s no proof that he tried dodging service and that the court bailiff didn’t swear an affidavit to that effect. He prayed the court to set aside the ruling of the Appeal Court because it was given without their brief after failing to serve them appropriately.

On the second ground of the appeal, Odengene prayed the apex court to declare him the candidate of the party based on the judgment of the lower court. The Federal High Court said the evidence before it shows that Nnaji is the only aspirant for the Labour Party governorship ticket as he was the only one that purchased the necessary forms and made all the required payments. Odengene is insisting that if the Trial court agrees he was the only one that qualifies as the candidate of the party, the apex court should either declare him the candidate or mandate the party to conduct an affirmative primary election for him.

The final appeal is that the apex court should set aside the judgment of the Appeal Court because they didn’t give them enough time to file their brief because the process through which they were served was faulty.

He’s praying the apex court to consider this as it wasn’t considered by the Appeal Court because it was in their brief and the judgment was given without it.

You can recall that some officials of the Labour Party headquarters in Abuja had earlier faulted the judgment of the Appeal Court on the ground that Edeoga who has no receipt issued by the party shouldn’t have been declared the authentic candidate at the expense of Evarest Nnaji who fulfilled all the requirements of the party.