Delta APC Crises: Omo-Agege, Ogboru, Others Suffer another Round of Court Defeat

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, Thursday, April 4, 2019 in a landmark judgement, again nullified the candidature of Great Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) reaffirming the earlier judgment of Justice Toyin Adegoke of Federal High Court Asaba which nullified the candidacy of the embattled APC Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and other candidates from the sacked Jones Erue factional executive.

Justice Dimgba  while delivering his judgement in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1085/ 2018, filed by Barr Victor Ochei, former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, and APC governorship aspirant, nullified the party’s governorship primaries held on September 30, 2018 over acts of illegality.

Ochei, had through his counsel, Ahmed Rahi (SAN), prayed the court to declare that the APC governorship primary election that held on September 30, 2018, was illegal on the grounds that unknown delegates were used for the exercise.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Dimgba ordered the cancellation of the APC governorship primaries that produced Chief Great Ogboru, and granted four of the five reliefs sought by the plaintiff.

He said four of the five reliefs sought by the plaintiff succeed while relief 4 was not granted due to the effusion of time.

He said, “All the reliefs sought in this suit are similar with those for which Justice Adegoke pronounced judgement on, so reliefs 1,2,3,5 hereby granted. However, relief 4 is refused because the governorship election is over and the relief is spent.”

In arriving at the judgement, Justice Dimgba said the Federal High Court has one jurisdiction and as such cannot be seen giving discordant judgement, adding that “having considered the decisions reached by the Federal High Court in the case of Cyril Ogodo, which has similar reliefs, and the fact that some of the defendants in this suit are the same, the court has decided to follow the decisions arrived at in the Ogodo case”.

Recall that Justice Emeka Nwite, Federal High Court in Warri while striking out a suit filed by Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and Ima Niboro which sought to declare them as the APC candidates for the Delta Central Senatorial and Ughelli/Udu federal constituency election, also referred to Justice Adogoke’s judgement on issue of the rightful candidate of the he party, preferring to take lead form the earlier judgement of an Asaba Federal High Court.

Giving a legal Interpretation of the Warri judgement, the counsel to Emerhor, George Igbokwe (SAN), said the judge’s decision simply meant that the earlier judgment by the Federal High Court in Asaba, which decided the matter of the authenticity of the executives of the party in the state and already upheld the candidacies of Emerhor and others, was sufficient and override the need for the reliefs being sought by Emerhor and Niboro in the Warri suit.