ABIA: Court Strikes Out Case Against Ikpeazu, Affirms Election

Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu

FEDERAL High Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, on Friday (today) has dismissed forgery charges instituted against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State by a guber aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Friday Nwosu seeking for order of the court to be declared the governor against the governor and Samson Ogah.
 

Justice A.I. Allagoa in his ruling held that the governor’s tax clearance submitted to his party were genuine and therefore struck out the matter for lack of merit.

One of the governorship aspirants in the December 2014 governorship primaries of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Mr. Friday Nwosu, had filed a tax forgery suit against Ikpeazu,among others and prayed the court to declare him the party’s rightful candidate and governor of the state...

However, this development came less than two weeks after Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Ikpeazu to vacate office for submitting false information to his party, the PDP for the governorship primaries, and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue the petitioner, Mr. Samson Ogah with a certificate of return in view of his inauguration.

The ruling triggered severe controversies with lawyers giving diverse interpretations while the embattled governor had to approach the Court of Appeal with 50 prayers seeking to set aside the ruling of the federal High Court as the judgment also put the Attorney General of the Federation in confusion therefore applying for interpretation for a superior court. The matter is pending in the court at the moment.