Former Minister of Health and governorship candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has approached a Federal High Court in Abakaliki with a suit seeking an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to expunge Chief Dave Umahi from the list of the governorship candidates cleared for the forthcoming general election.
He is contending that Umahi emerged the party’s candidate in breach of section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 and relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
Professor Onyebuchi, in an originating summons filed on his behalf by Awa Kalu, is also requesting for a separate order directing the Ebonyi chapter of the PDP to conduct a fresh primary election in the state.
Onyebuchi, in the summons, formulated six questions for determination, including whether he is not entitled to participate in the December 8, 2014 primary poll held in the state by the Ebonyi chapter of PDP after he had been cleared and screened for the poll.
In an accompanying affidavit supporting the originating motion, Onyebuchi explained that he was a bonafide member of the PDP who resigned his appointment as the Federal Minister of Health in response to public interest to contest governorship election in the state.
He said he obtained the expression of interest form together with nomination form before submitting himself to a panel by the PDP for the South-East geopolitical zone in Enugu, which screened him and issued him a clearance certificate with registration number 0001273.
He said he was warming up to participate in the poll when it emerged that the Ebonyi State chapter of the party had substituted the authentic delegates' list with a different list contrary to the party’s guidelines.
The former minister alleged, in the suit, that the delegates' list was designed to produce a pre-arranged governorship candidate.
Professor Onyebuchi, who kicked against the substitution of the authentic delegates' list, said he wrote a petition to the highest authorities in the PDP which compelled a series of meetings at the highest level of the political party during which the state governor publicly announced that all primary elections in the state had been suspended pending resolution of the dispute on the delegates' list.
He also said the PDP subsequently set up a reconciliation committee headed by Akwa Ibom governor, which sat in Abuja between December 3 and 4, 2014, but that no report had been issued on the issue till date.
He added that notwithstanding the fact that the directive of the state governor suspending the primary election indefinitely was still extant, the Ebonyi chapter of the PDP still went ahead to conduct the primary poll which produced Chief Umahi as candidate.
Prof Onyebuchi said that he never participated in the poll on the account that the primary poll would not hold until the issue on the delegates list had been finally resolved, adding that, INEC had already cleared Umahi notwithstanding the circumstances surrounding his emergence.
He said the frustration occasioned on him compelled him to do a petition to the National Chairman of the party which he purportedly did not dignify with a response and the development made him to approach the court for determination of six fundamental questions including whether or not he was not entitled to participate in thr poll after he had been cleared; whether the procedure for nomination and sponsorship of candidates for elective offices is not within the exclusive domain of section 87 and provisions of the 1999 constitution.
No comments:
Post a Comment