Breaking: Court Sacks Imo APC Reps Member-Elect Ozuruigbo, Orders INEC to Issue Certificate of Return to PDP candidate

A Federal High Court in Owerri on Monday sacked the member -elect for Nkwerre/ Nwangele / Njaba / Isu federal constituency of Imo State , Ugonna Ozurigbo .

Ozurigbo had , last Wednesday , resigned his position as the Deputy Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly.

Justice P .A. Rigime , who delivered the judgment , ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to issue a Certificate of Return to Kingsley Echendu of the Peoples Democratic Party .

Neither PDP nor its candidate was a party to the suit .

The court said that Harrison Nwadike , who is the plaintiff , was the “rightful winner ” of the All Progressives Congress primary election in the federal constituency .

Nwadike had taken his party , APC , and INEC to court over the submission of Ozurigbo ’s name as the candidate of the party .

Nwadike , who prayed the court to declare him as the APC rightful candidate , contended that automatic tickets were unknown to the constitution .

The court in its judgment agreed with the petitioner that automatic tickets were unknown to law .

The justice who said that the candidacy of Ozurigbo was illegitimate ordered INEC to issue the PDP candidate , Echendu , who came second in the general election with a Certificate of Return as the rightful winner of the election .

The petitioner who spoke after the judgment was delivered , said that while he agreed with the court that he was the rightful winner of the APC primary election in the federal constituency , it was wrong for the court to have declared the PDP candidate the lawful winner of the general election .

He said that he would go to court to challenge the aspect of the judgment which ordered INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate .

But counsel to the PDP candidate , who is the beneficiary of the court judgment , Stanley Imo, said that the court was right to have declared his client the rightful winner of the election .

He said , “The law is very clear on this . Harrison Nwadike did not participate in all the stages of the election but my client did . Now that the court held that Ugonna Ozurigbo was not the rightful candidate of the APC ( and) said that the second runner -up who is my client that participated in all the stages of the elections should be issued with the Certificate of Return” .

The PDP publicity secretary in the state , Damian Opara , urged INEC to waste no time in issuing its candidate the Certificate of Return as ordered by the court .

Opara who spoke to newsmen said that the judgment “has shown that impunity and illegality are bad. PDP did perfect primary elections and we are reaping the dividends .”