2023 Election: Fed. High Court Declares Oli Authentic Candidate Of LP For Anaocha 11 Constituency, Anambra
A Federal High Court sitting in Awka, Anambra state, has nullified the nomination of Osita Kingsley Ozalagba as candidate of the Labour Party, LP, for Anaocha Two Constituency of Anambra state in the March 11, 2023 general election.
The Court presided over by Justice H. A. Nganjiwa, rather ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to publish the name of Michael Chinedu Oli as the authentic candidate of Labour Party in Anaochad 11 Constituency in that election.
The Court made the order based on its judgement on a suit brought before it by Michael Chinedu Oli challenging the publication of Ozalagba’s name by the INEC as the Labour Party candidate for Anaocha 11 state constituency in the election.
Oli, in his suit marked FHC/AWK/CS/146/2022, told the Court that he was the actual candidate of the Labour Party for Anaocha 11 Anambra state constituency and that he secured the ticket during the party’s primary for that purpose conducted on May 26, 2022.
He told the Court that as at the time he was nominated as Labour party candidate, Osita Ozalagba was still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where he contested for the ticket of the same Anaocha 11 state constituency under the party’s platform and lost during the party’s primary held on May 27, 2022 before the purported Labour Party primary held on June 5, 2022, wherein he claimed that he was nominated as the party’s candidate for the constituency.
Oli further told the Court that Ozalagba’s name was not even in the Labour Party membership register forwarded to the INEC 30 days before the conduct of the party’s primary that purportedly produced him as Labour Party candidate and that the 21 days notice could not have been given to the electoral commission by the Labour Party for the conduct of the fresh primary purportedly held on June 5, 2022 as required by both the Electoral Act, 2022(as Amended) as well as the 1999 constitution (as Amended).
In ordering the INEC to publish Oli’s name as the authentic candidate of the Labour Party for Anaocha 11 constituency of Anambra state, Justice Nganjiwa made an order, stopping Ozalagba from parading as the Labour Party candidate in the constituency.
The Court awarded the total sum of N2million in favour of Oli as costs he incurred for prosecuting the case in the Court and general damages he suffered during the period of the litigation to be paid him by Osita Kingsley Ozalagba who incidentally was the 3rd defendant in the case.
