The Supreme Court on Friday threw out the appeal instituted by Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume, challenging the judgment of the Appeal Court, sitting in Owerri, which reinstated Sir Frank Ibezim as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Imo North senatorial by-election on December 5, 2020.
The Court of Appeal had on December 4 2020, quashed the judgment of the Federal High Court, Owerri, which had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to replace Ibezim with Araraume, as APC candidate.
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court panel agreed with the Court of Appeal judgement that the lower court ought not to have made the consequential orders against Sir Ibezim.
The lead and concurrent judgments read by Hon. Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba and Hon. Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim concluded that Ibezim’s fundamental rights to fair hearing were abridged being not a party or privy to the matter at the High Court,
The apex court stated that the lower court also erred in not dismissing the case filed by one Lady Uchenna Ubah, as lacking in merit.
By the judgement, the Supreme Court’s five-member panel presided over by Justice Amina Adamu Augie effectively reaffirmed Ibezim’s candidature of the APC in the senatorial by-election.
