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Enugu Labour Party Tussle: Appeal Court Recognizes Chijioke Edeoga as Genuine Guber Candidate

The battle for the Labour Party gubernatorial ticket in Enugu State was laid to rest yesterday, January 6, 2023, as the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja reinstated Chijioke Edeoga as the authentic candidate of the party in Enugu State. 

The judgment followed an appeal by the Labour Party and Chijioke Edeoga, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja to nullify the primaries that produced Edeoga and order another primary. 

Delivering judgment on the matter yesterday, the appeal court set aside the judgment of Justice Maha of the Federal High Court, Abuja, and declared Chijioke Edeoga the authentic Labour Party gubernatorial candidate. 
 

Origin of the Enugu Labour Party Ticket Tussle 

The battle for the Labour Party's governorship ticket in Enugu State between Chief Everest Nnaji (Odengene) and Hon. Chijioke Edeoga began shortly after the latter was declared the winner of the Labour Party's rerun primaries in Enugu. 

The party held new primaries on August 4, 2022, after Camsmir Agbo, the winner of the first primaries of the party had written to INEC and the Labour Party expressing his decision to step down as the party's candidate.

During the rerun, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga got 81 votes to emerge as the party's candidate in the state. 

Odengene’s Lawsuit 

Shortly after the primaries, another contender for the ticket, Chief Everest Nnaji, popularly known as Odengene, approached the Abuja High Court, seeking the cancellation of the primaries that produced Edeoga and a declaration as the authentic candidate of the party in the state. 

He, through his legal team, argued that having fulfilled the requirements given to him by the Labour Party to become the sole candidate of the party, he was supposed to be declared the guber candidate in the state. He also argued that the decision of the party to exclude him from the primaries despite purchasing the form and meeting all the requirements renders the primaries invalid, null, and void. 

The Federal High Court orders a rerun. 

On November 19, 2022, the Federal High Court in Abuja nullified the primary that produced Edeoga and ordered a rerun within 14 days. Delivering the judgment, Justice Evelyn Maha agreed with Evaristus Nnaji that the primaries were not properly conducted and therefore ordered that the primaries be repeated within 14 days from the day of the judgment. 
 

The Appeal and the Reinstatement 

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the federal high court, the Labor Party appealed the judgment through its counsel, Alexandra Obodo (SAN). Delivering judgment on the matter, the appeal court set aside the judgment of the Federal Court and declared Chijioke Edeoga the authentic candidate of the party. 

The court agreed on the four issues argued by Alex Obodo (SAN), counsel to the Labour Party. 

First, the court wondered how Justice Maha had arrived at such a strange decision, referencing several judgments of the supreme courts on who should be an aspirant. The court declared that Everest Nnaji was not qualified to be an aspirant and therefore had no locus standi to institute a case against the conduct of the primaries. 

Also, the court agreed with Alex Obodo (SAN) that the case filed by Everest Nnaji was filed out of time, and therefore the court ought not to have entertained the suit. 

Labour Party chieftains and supporters react 

Meanwhile, there was wide jubilation across the state among Labor Party supporters after the news of the judgment filtered into the state late Friday afternoon. Many supporters of the party have praised what they have called the "soundness" of the judge's decision. 

Also, a chieftain of the Labor Party in the state and the senatorial candidate of the party in Enugu West, Chief Oyibo Chukwu, described the judgment as sensible and in line with the extant laws governing elections in the country. In his interview with the Daily Sun, he said: 

My take on the judgment is that it is the most sensible judgment in the circumstances and that it is in line with all the instant laws that pertain to the election. It is also consistent with common sense because one of the grounds of appeal is that the principal party, our gubernatorial candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, was never made a party at the lower court. 

He also advised the party to come together to work towards the success of the party and to also offer hands of fellowship to Everest Nnaji. 

Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, a former two-term commissioner in Enugu State, will be facing Peter Mbah of the People's Democratic Party in what many analysts have described as the most competitive election in Enugu State since 1999.

He is from Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area 
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