Barely two days to the bye-election in Ebonyi State, the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki has disqualified Silas Onu, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate.
Justice Ngajiwa, who delivered the judgement, noted that the PDP candidate did not give give the Independent Nigeria Electoral Commission (INEC) 21 days’ notice of congresses for the bye-election.
However, Onu said the judgment coming given two days before the election was designed to confuse his teeming supporters and discourage them from from voting.
He urged his party loyalists that he contest the election, adding that he would appeal the judgement that disqualified him.
“Today, we received a contrived judgment from Justice Ngajiwa of the FHC Abakaliki that @OfficialPDPNig did not give @inecnigeria 21 days notice of congresses for the bye-election that INEC itself gave less than 21 days notice for these congresses,” Onu said.
“It is interesting that INEC Abakaliki were the ones arguing about the non-issuance of 21 days notice to them. The REC deliberately refused to attend our activities even with notices given to them. They monitored our primary election and asserted so. Yet, Justice Ngajiwa chose to ignore the plethora of superior court decisions on internal party affairs, even the recent Supreme Court decision on Plateau State.
“The obvious design of the judgment given 2 days to election is to create confusion in the process and ensure that our teaming supporters are discouraged from voting.
“While we acknowledge that the judgment is contrived and deliberately done for political reasons, we are filing our notice of appeal immediately to ensure that we legally continue our participation in the election. Our supporters are called on to come out in their numbers and vote for PDP on Saturday 3rd February 2024.
“The FHC is not the final court in pre-election matters and as such our participation is sacrosanct and our votes will count.”
