The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Friday commenced hearing in a suit seeking to remove Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State from office.
In the appeal, a chief of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Chief Alexander Obiechina, is challenging the refusal of an Abuja Federal High Court to nullify the nomination process that led to Chime’s emergence as the candidate for the PDP on April 26, 2011.
Obiechina is asking the appellate court to determine whether there was a valid special congress or primary election held in Enugu State on January 12, 2011, in which Chime was nominated as the PDP candidate.
Insisting that the laid down conditions for the nomination of candidates for governorship positions, as enshrined in sections 85(1) and 87(1)(4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), were not fulfilled when Chime emerged, Obiechina is arguing that January 9, 2011, was the validly set date for the governorship primaries in Enugu State.
Obiechina has asked the appellate court to nullify the primary election and order Chime to forthwith vacate the office.
At the commencement of hearing in the matter on Friday, the panel of justices of the Court of Appeal granted an application in which Obiechina’s counsel, Oba Maduabuchi, asked it to proceed to determine the matter even though one of the respondents, the Independent National Electoral Commission, had yet to file its brief and relevant processes.
Maduabuchi noted that INEC failed to file and serve any brief or application for extension of time in respect of the appeal.
INEC’s withdrawal from the suit was not surprising as the commission had faulted Chime’s nomination while the suit was before the Abuja FHC.
Chime’s lawyer, Mrs O. J. Offia, and that of the PDP, O. K. Akuyibo, did not object to the appellant’s wish to leave out INEC in the appeal.
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