The Court of Appeal in Abuja removed House of Representatives member Michael Enyong as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Akwa Ibom State. Delivering its judgment on Tuesday, Justice Hamma Barka reinstated Umo Eno, a former Commissioner for Lands, as the PDP’s candidate. Enyong’s nomination had previously been set aside by a Federal High Court in Abuja on 20 January 2023.
The appellate court upheld the PDP’s appeal and vacated all orders made by the Federal High Court in favor of Enyong. It also ordered the House of Representatives member representing Uyo Federal Constituency to pay one million naira to the appellant as costs of litigation. Justice Barka agreed with the PDP counsel, Paul Usoro SAN and Uwemedimo Nwoko SAN, that the Federal High Court’s judgment was delivered in error and that the plaintiff had misled the court, leading to an unjust conclusion. Consequently, the appellate court voided the Federal High Court’s judgment, stating it was predicated on errors.
Justice Barka further concurred with Usoro that only a party’s National Working Committee has the authority to conduct primary elections for nominating candidates for general elections. The appellate court held that the issue of statutory delegates who voted in the primary was an internal affair of the party and that the lower court should not have examined it. Since the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the PDP’s internal matters, it had no legal discretion to intervene.
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