The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is under pressure to issue certificate of return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, Dr. Obinna Uzoh, following a court ruling that he is the validly elected senator for the Anambra South senatorial district.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday reaffirmed its earlier decision, ordering the INEC, to issue certificate of return to Dr. Uzoh, having earlier declared that Senator Ifeanyi Ubah should vacate the seat .

The court said Senator Ubah did not emerge candidate of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) from primaries, against the provisions of the Electoral Act. Also, the court said the senator presented a forged school certificate for the election.

The order was issued following the striking out of the motion filed by Chief Christian Uba of the PDP requesting the court to join him in the suit challenging the election of Senator  Ubah. The court also dismissed the motion filed by Senator Ubah, asking it to set aside the earlier ruling in favour of Dr. Uzoh on grounds of non-service.

The Judge, Hon. Justice Bello Kawu had earlier discharged his ex-parte order suspending the execution of his judgment on suite No CV/3044/2018.

In response to the court ruling, lawyers of Dr. Uzoh have submitted the court ruling to the INEC, while demanding compliance to the court order.

The lawyers said since the court rejected the stay of execution plea by Senator Ubah, the INEC should issue Dr. Uzoh certificate of return, as directed by the court, so that he could be sworn in as senator representing Anambra South.

Dr. Uzoh had filed the pre-election matter challenging the nomination of the first defendant, Ubah by the second defendant, as the candidate of YPP for the Anambra South senatorial dDistrict in the 2019 general election.

The first and second defendants claimed they were not aware of the suit and, therefore, were not properly served. But the presiding judge in his ruling said there was evidence that the defendants were duly served as proof of service was available in the file in the court. He therefore dismissed their claim that they were not served.

Uzoh contested the primary election the PDP but was not declared the winner. Chief Chris Ubah was wrongfully declared winner of the PDP primaries.

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Uzoh challenged the party decision in court and a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice O.A. Musa on March 25, 2019 declared him winner of the PDP primary for Anambra South Senatorial election.

Sequel to this development, Dr. Uzoh applied to be joined in suit No CV/3044/2018 challenging the election of Ubah as senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District on grounds of forgery and contravening the electoral law by a motion dated 25/3/2019 and filed on 27/3/2019. The motion was granted after which a counter affidavit to the originating summons was filed on 2/4/2019.

However, the court granted the reliefs prayed for by Dr. Uzoh in both his application for joinder and counter affidavit in the judgment of 11/4/2019 which ordered the INEC and the Senate President to respectively, issue and acknowledge a certificate of return to Dr. Uzoh as the Senator for Anambra South Senatorial District.

It is important to note that Chief Ifeanyi Ubah went to court to apply for a stay of execution of judgment which was dismissed on 11th October 2019. The court in its ruling held that having given the respective judgments and ruling of 11/4/2019 and 11/10/2019, the court has become functus officio and by section 285 (10) of the 1999 constitution as amended under the 4th Alternation, the motion is statute/time barred.

The defendant Ifeanyi Ubah, in his bid to further delay the course of justice, further brought an Ex-parte application dated December 3, 2019 for stay of execution of the judgment; and a further motion dated 5th December, 2019, seeking to set aside the judgment of the court.

Also about a month later, the 2nd defendant, YPP, brought a further application dated the 20th day of December, 2019 and filed on the 30th of December, 2019, also seeking to set aside the judgment of the court.

With the Ex-parte order discharged, with an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) and the President of the Senate to, respectively, issue and acknowledge Certificate of Return to Dr. Obinna Uzoh as the Senator for Anambra South Constituency; INEC is now under obligation to issue to Dr. Obinna Uzoh the Certificate of Return as the Senator for Anambra South as ordered by the Court; and the President of the Senate to swear him in within 48 hours as ruled by the court.

Meanwhile, Senator Ubah had wondered why a matter on Anambra,State was filled at a federal High Court in Abuja. However, the law says where primary is not held, any state or FCT high court or FHC has jurisdiction to entertain the case.

In the case of Lau v PDP (2018) 4 NWLR (Pt. 1608) 60 at 110-111 and 123, the Supreme Court held thus: “The law has moved on since the 1999 Constitution vested the Federal High Court with exclusive jurisdiction over any action for a declaration or injunction affecting the validity of any executive or administrative action or decision of the Federal Government or any of its agencies, which includes INEC. The current position of the electoral act, the Federal High Court and the High Court of a State or the Fedeal Capital Territory have concurrent jurisdiction to hear and determine disputes arising from the conduct of a party’s primaries….”