By Chinonyerem Chijioke
“Ex turpi causa non oritur actio” is Latin, and means no right can spring from what is wrongfully done ab initio, and one cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand.
The quest for Chief Daniel Eke to defeat injustice, crass and obtuse impunity in Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) through the court of law is gathering momentum, causing fears and sending shivers into the spines of the tortfeasors, who are seeking to smuggle themselves into the governorship seat of Abia state through the back door of illegality and illegitimacy.
Chief Eke, a frontline governorship aspirant of the APC in Abia state during the May 26, 2022 primaries of the party, has insisted that he will continue to fight for the conscience of the good people of Abia and for elections to be followed as prescribed by our laws within the APC and Nigeria at large.
Eke’s appeal expressly succeeded against the judgment of Justice Binta Nyako of November 11, 2022 which declared Dr. Uche Ogah the duly nominated gubernatorial candidate of the APC.
In an appeal Between Daniel Eke and Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, with the appeal No. CA/Abj/CV/1297/2022, at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday December 23, 2022, the Court allowed Eke’s appeal to succeed as meritorious and set aside the judgment of justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High court in Abuja which declared Ogah the duly nominated candidate of the APC.
The court maintained that the direct primaries that produced Uche Ogah was invalid by reasons of non compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of direct primaries by the state EXCO instead of the National Executive Committee, and non holding of a special Congress by National to ratify the direct primaries as stipulated by the Electoral Act.
Chief Daniel Eke has been contending in all his cases that the Direct Primaries which Ogah is relying on, to claim being duly nominated as the APC candidate is embedded in illegalities and incongruities and that the court should not allow such a claim to be sustained.
This is one leg of the legal issues being raised by Eke in the conduct of the governorship primary election of the APC in Abia state. Another leg is that of Chief Ikechi Emenike who is also wrongly claiming to be duly nominated by reason of an illegal indirect primary election which ran parallel, the same day, to that of Ogah’s direct primary.
All parties should be aware that Eke has also approached the Supreme Court in Appeal No. SC/CV/1670/22, seeking to nullify both the Direct and Indirect governorship primaries conducted by the APC in Abia state on the grounds that none of them met the requirements of the party guidelines, the Electoral Act, and the Constitution of the APC.
Eke has maintained on the side of Emenike that there is a fundamental infraction that can never be allowed to be sustained. The party opted for a direct primaries and Emenike is claiming victory through his indirect primaries that was never monitored by INEC. There was never a time the APC conducted any delegate election to have produced the delegates. The big question is who are those that elected Emenike at the indirect primary election? Before a valid indirect primary election can be conducted, there must first be a valid delegate election of the party. The position of Chief Eke on the Chief Ikechi Emenike’s case is apposite and unambiguous.
Chief Daniel Eke and his campaign organization as well as his teaming supporters have maintained that the efforts of both Uche Ogah and Ikechi Emenike to smuggle themselves through the back door and foist themselves as governorship candidates of the APC amount to building castles in the air. This is laughable and can never transmute into reality.
It is on record that Eke has maintained his strong membership of his party, the APC, and his unflinching support for the Presidential ticket of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu/ Kashim Shettima. He has also reiterated this when he met with Hon. James Faleke, the Secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council at the Abuja office headquarters on October 11, 2022.
However, Chief Eke is seeking that inane and unconscionable injustice should not be allowed to take over the party and Abia state at large. Therefore, he had approached the court never to allow Emenike and Ogah benefit from their illegalities.
Those having sympathy for the APC in Abia state are praying that these legal battles do not totally deny the APC the opportunity of fielding a governorship candidate in Abia state which may also rob off on the votes which the presidential candidate shall poll.
Abia state is empirically considered the state with the highest followership of the APC in the southeast. Therefore, one will reasonably expect that the APC National Headquarters takes these matters seriously and find an immediate political solution with Chief Emenike, Chief Eke, and Dr. Ogah before the Supreme Court hears the cases.
(Chinonyerem Chijiok wrote in from Umuahia, Abia State)
