The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked a federal high court in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State, to grant its request to drop a lawsuit it had filed against Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru, challenging his selection as the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s governorship candidate for the general elections of 2023.
Nwifuru’s nomination by the APC as its candidate for governor in 2023 was contested by the PDP in suit No. FHC/AI/CS/7/2023 on the grounds that he was at the time a party member and hence could not have been nominated by the APC.
Following a notice of preliminary objection filed against the lawsuit by the first and second defendants, Francis Nwifuru and the APC, respectively, the court presided over by Justice Fatun Riman earlier dismissed the case on the grounds that it was statute-barred on February 14, 2023.
PDP appealed the court’s ruling on May 15, 2023, through its attorney Chief Mudi Erhenede, claiming that the plaintiff had not received notice of the defendants’ preliminary objection, which had been the basis for the case’s dismissal. PDP was unhappy with the court’s ruling.
Erhenede contended that because the plaintiff was not given a fair hearing because the court heard the notice of preliminary objection without having been served, the move to set aside the aforementioned decision was filed.
In his ruling on June 22, 2023, Justice Hyeladzira Ajiya Nganjiwa vacated the judgment and proclaimed it to be invalid because it was made without the proper authority.
Justice Nganjiwa issued a number of directions, one of which was to have the matter relisted on the court’s case list for a new trial.
