One-time Abia State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Emma Nwaka, has rejected the dismissal of his suit for the disqualification of the party’s governorship candidate for the March 18, 2023 election, Chief Ambrose Okechukwu Ahiwe.

The Federal High Court Umuahia presided over by Hon Justice E. N. Anyadike dismissed the suit on July 14. The court ruled that candidate selection is internal party affair, therefore non-justiciable. It added that since election is over, the case has become an academic exercise so court cannot make a vain order.

However, Nwaka told News Express: “I disagree with both reasons. On reason one, we’re not talking about internal party positions guided by party constitution. On reason two, how can she say the case has been overtaken by event when Ahiwe parading as candidate is in court to oust the governor?”

Continuing, he said: “My lawyers will study the judgment of the said court and decide on my next line of action. The beautiful thing about our judicial system is that it has a window for a litigant who is dissatisfied with the judgment of a lower court to head upstairs to test the validity of the judgment complained of.”

The Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/226/2023 has PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the other defendants. Nwaka is challenging the emergence of Ahiwe on the grounds that having not participated in the governorship primary election of May 25, 2022, it was wrong for the party to allow him to take part in the rerun primary election of February 4, 2023.

Filed on February 16 at a Federal High Court in the FCT Abuja, the suit was later transferred to Umuahia.

Though the election has already come and gone, with Ahiwe as a loser, Nwaka says the outcome is important as it would help to deepen democratic practice in both Abia State and Nigeria as a whole.

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