A Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked the senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Peter Nwaoboshi.
Delivering a judgment in a pre-election matter Wednesday, Justice Ahmed Mohammed held that Nwaoboshi, who is a serving senator, was not the validly nominated candidate in the October 2, 2018 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) primary for the 2019 general election.
Ned Nwoko had petitioned the court, praying it to annul the candidacy of Nwaoboshi on the ground he was not the PDP candidate in the Feb. 23 presidential and national assembly elections.
Nwoko prayed the court for an order to stop INEC from publishing or further publishing the name of Senator Nwaoboshi as the candidate for Delta North Senatorial District.
Nwoko also asked for another order compelling the PDP to forward his name to INEC as the authentic candidate of the party for the senatorial district in the 2019 general election.
The plaintiff predicated his suit on seven grounds which was supported by a 20-paragraph affidavit evidence and five exhibits, claimed that he was screened and cleared for the Delta North Senatorial District by the PDP Electoral Committee.
He claimed among others that at the end of the primary election he scored 453 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nwaoboshi, who scored 405 while Paul Osaji came third with 216 votes.
Nwoko however claimed that to his surprise, the PDP jettisoned the result of the primary election and forwarded Nwaoboshi’s name as its candidate for the Senatorial District.
He disclosed that all efforts to redress the injustice through the party’s appeal panel were unsuccessful.
The respondents, however, attacked the suit of the plaintiff on the grounds that it was statute barred since it was not filed within the 14 days provided for by law.
They also claimed that the suit constituted an abuse of court process since the plaintiff had earlier filed a similar suit at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which was struck out.
However, Justice Mohammed upheld the submission of Nwoko as argued by his counsel, Ahmed Raji and subsequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of Nwoko as candidate of the PDP.
The judge said Nwoko was able to establish before the court that he scored majority of the lawful votes at the primary election.
The court held that the case of the plaintiff was not statute barred and did not also amount to forum shopping.
According to Justice Mohammed, the plaintiff’s case is not against the conduct of the October 2, 2018 primary but the continuous display of the name of the third defendant (Nwaoboshi) as candidate of the PDP for the senatorial zone for the purpose of the 2019 general election.
Justice Mohammed said he was satisfied with the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the ballot papers used for the primary election and made available to the court by the plaintiff to establish his case.
The judge observed that the PDP though disputed the claims of Nwoko on the ballot papers, he said the same PDP however failed to produce ballot papers used for the election when ordered to do so in December, 2018.
Subsequently, Justice Mohammed held that the plaintiff has established that he is winner of the October 2, 2018 primary and he is entitled to his claim and consequently granted the relief sought by Nwoko.
The court ordered Nwaoboshi to stop parading himself as the candidate of the PDP for the senatorial zone.
Felix Omohomhion, Abuja
