The candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial District for Labour Party (LP), Senator Victor Umeh, has raise the alarm that the secret plot to undermine his candidacy was actually targeted at the party’s presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi.
Umeh, in a telephone conversation with Bellnewsonline.com, expressed dismay that despite plethora of judicial pronouncements, especially from the Supreme Court, some judicial officers could entertain suits from rival political parties challenging other parties’ primary elections.
He expressed optimism that the Court of Appeal would clear every ambiguity canvassed by applicants at the Federal High Court, Awka, which led to the nullification of his nomination.
Umeh, who hails from the same Senatorial Zone as Obi, said it is not possible for orders of the Federal High Court, Awka, presided over by Justice H. A. Ngajiwa, to stand.
He pointed out that similar cases in Edo and Benue states could not stand superior legal argument, stressing that recent instances in Benue, where some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenged the nomination of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates fell flat.
Umeh said: “The suit filled by PDP and Senator Lilian Ekwunife, challenging my nomination as candidate of LP for Anambra Central Senatorial District is dead on arrival and would be vacated.
“Ekwunife and the PDP do not have the locus standi to challenge my nomination in the party, because there are judicial precedents and legal authorities to show that the judgment was delivered outside the court’s jurisdiction.”
Insisting that the attempt to use litigation to slow him down was ostensibly to limit the sweeping influence of Obi’s popularity. Umeh contended that recourse to the courts was PDP’s attempt to diminish Obi’s looming influence among voters in the district.
He declared that the Appeal Court would separate political mischief from extant provisions of the law, particularly proper interpretation of the Electoral Act 2022.