December 12, (THEWILL) – The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Ebonyi State, Barrister Silas Joseph Onu, has said that the issue of who the governorship candidate of the party in the State has already been laid to rest by the Supreme Court, adding that “even a nursery one pupil knows that any judgement obtained from the lower court on a matter already determined by the Supreme Court is like a tissue paper in the toilet.”
Onu said, “on September 14, 2022, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Amina Augie, unanimously declared Ifeanyi Odii, as the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP in Ebonyi State for next year’s election. That’s the final bus stop as per litigations on who our party’s gubernatorial candidate in Ebonyi State is.”
He described claims by Tochukwu Okorie, that he was the Chairman of PDP Ebonyi State, as not only spurious but prejudicial, adding that, “I wouldn’t ordinarily join issues with him as the substratum of this entire episode is before the Supreme Court for determination. However, I will attempt to touch on the barefaced lies contained in his claims.”
Onu, who said no amount of shenanigans can unsettle what the Supreme Court had already settled concerning Odii’s candidacy, added that “Okorie and his co-travellers were only trying to wake a dead horse by going to a Federal High Court to secure a black market judgement on the State Chairmanship so as to use that as another ground to give life to the governorship primary matter, which has been laid to rest by the Supreme Court.”
He pointed out that in the judgment delivered on December 7, 2022, it was admitted that the case was an offshoot from the judgment of A.R. Muhammed, a justice of the Federal High Court with coordinate jurisdiction as the one that delivered the judgment.
“Was it an appeal? In that judgment, it was also very clear that the actions being invalidated were the actions of the PDP, not those of Silas Joseph Onu, as contained in their prayers – Silas Joseph Onu never conducted any election. The judgment was clear that the actions of the 2nd Defendant were being cancelled, not mine – very distinct from their prayers. I wonder if the judgment is saying that PDP cannot hold primary election because Mr. Tochukwu is fighting to be a State Chairman. Without a State Chairman, PDP can hold its primary elections and no court can stop that as provided in the Electoral Act, 2022,” Onu said.