Appeal Court reinstates Ikpeazu as Abia governor
It was victory for Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia
State yesterday as the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja
set aside the judgment that removed him from
office.
The panel, which comprised Justices Helen
Ogunwumiju, Abubakar Datti Yahaya, Philomina
Ekpe, Ibrahim Shatta Bdliya and Saidu Tanko
Hussaini, set aside the judgment delivered by Justice
Okon Abang in its entirety.
The court held that the originating summons which
led to the judgment that removed Ikpeazu was not
properly constituted, and as such, the lower court
lacked jurisdiction to hear it, and consequently, any
decision that flowed from it was null and void.
Aside from not signing the originating summons,
the court held that the suit filed by Dr. Samson Ogah
did not disclose any cause of action because it was
filed even before the appellant (Ikpeazu) submitted
his documents to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).
Justice Shatta agreed with the counsel to the
governor, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) that it was
not the duty of the court to begin to search for the
signatory to the originating summons to
authenticate it as required by law.
The court also held that although the originating
summons was later amended, an amended
summons has no capacity to cure a defective and
incurably bad originating summons being the
foundation of the suit.
According to the appellate court, “the law has laid
down principles by which a case can be instituted,
but on the motion which led to this appeal, three
people indicated themselves as lawyers and signed
the document while the law states that only an
identifiable legal practitioner can do so.”
The court ruled that it was not its business to
embark on a voyage of helping a litigant decide
who filed his case, and by so doing, the lower court
erred in deciding for the litigants.
In another pronouncement by Justice Ogunwumiju,
the appellate court held that Justice Abang raped
democracy in his order that the INEC should issue a
certificate of return to Ogah when there was no
evidence of forgery or criminality against Ikpeazu.
According to the court, the judgment of Justice
Abang was grossly erroneous because it was based
on inadequacy of tax receipt that cannot be visited
on the appellant.
“After reading through the judgment several times,
I was amazed at how the trial judge arrived at his
conclusion of perjury against the appellant when
there was no evidence of forgery. To say the least,
his findings are ridiculous.
“The judge must have sat in his chamber,
unilaterally assessed and computed the tax of the
appellant and came to the conclusion that he did not
pay the required tax. But let me say that courts are
not allowed to speculate as the trial judge has done
in the instant case.
“In another breath, the trial judge spoke from both
sides of his mouth when in one breath, he claimed
that he based his findings on supply of false
information and in another breadth, he came to the
conclusion that the appellant in this matter
committed perjury, even when there was no
allegation of forgery and no allegation that he did
not pay tax.”
The Appeal Court also held that the Federal High
Court judge turned the head of the law upside down
in his conclusion that it was the appellant that
should bear the burden of proof on the allegation
made by Ogah.
“With respect, we disagree with him in this
conclusion because it is the person that makes an
allegation of falsehood that must prove it,” the court
said.
“From whatever angle one looks at the judgment of
the trial judge, the decision of his court was grossly
erroneous. The inadequacies of the tax receipt
cannot be visited on Ikpeazu who scored the
highest votes in the 2015 governorship election as
doing so will amount to a rape of democracy.”
In his reaction to the judgment yesterday, Governor
Ikpeazu told journalists: “This victory is for those
that voted for us to continue to serve Abia State. We
are grateful to the judiciary, the hope of the
common man. Without the judiciary, what would
have been my fate, a son of a poor teacher?”
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