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| Okezie Ikpeazu |
EMBATTLED
governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has won the first
appeal delivered by the Court of Appeal in
Abuja against the ruling of the Federal High Court which ordered him to vacate
office for the plaintiff, Samson Ogah over
falsification of tax clearance prior to the 2015 governorship election in the
state.
Following
the development, the governor filed appeal at the Court of Appeal and also sought
an injunction from Abia State High Court seeking to stop the Chief Judge of the state or any other judge in the state from inaugurating Samson Uche Ogah as Abia state Governor pending the determination of the
appeal...
However,
Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja on
July 8 ignored the appeal duly entered and insisted that he had jurisdiction to hear a motion for stay of execution of his earlier judgments delivered on June 27.
Delivering
the ruling, Justice Philomina Ekpe, who read the lead judgment, held that what Justice Abang failed to work
within the doctrine of “stare decisis” by
allowing a superior court to adjudicate on the matter rather than arrogating
appellate powers to itself, and therefore held that Justice Abang lacked
jurisdictions to entertain the matter.
Justice
Ekpe also held that the Justice Abang wrongly interpreted
the provisions of Order 4(10) and (11) of the
Court of Appeal rules when he held that the
said provisions were only applicable to an
interlocutory ruling of the lower court and
when a final judgment in a suit had been
delivered.
