Micheal Enyong
By Our Reporter
Bareky two weeks to governorship election, the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday sacked Michael Enyong, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had sacked Umo Eno as the PDP governorship candidate in the state.
In a judgment delivered on January 20, Fadima Aminu ordered the PDP to submit Michael Enyong’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1295/2022 filed in August, Enyong had submitted that he won the party’s primary election conducted on May 25, 2022.
However, delivering judgment on Tuesday, Justice Hamma Barka voided the judgment of the Federal High Court and set it aside on the ground that it was predicated on errors.
The judge agreed with counsel for Umo Eno that the lower court judgment was delivered in error and that the court was misled by the plaintiff in the matter to arrive at an unjust conclusion.
According to Channels Television, the appellate court held that the issue of statutory delegates who voted at the primary election is an internal affair of the party and that the lower court ought not to have enquired into the issue.
Justice Barka also agreed that it’s only the National Working Committee of a political party that has the power to conduct primary elections for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for the general election.
The appellate court further held that since the lower court has no jurisdiction to inquire into the internal affairs of PDP, the judge has no discretion in law to exercise in the matter.
Justice Barka thereafter upheld the appeal of the PDP and vacated all orders made by the Federal High Court judgment in favour of Michael Enyong.
The court further ordered Enyong to pay N1m to the appellant as the cost of litigation.
