‘Double standard’ — group faults court ruling ordering fresh guber primary for LP in Enugu

A group known as the Enugu Good Governance Group (E-3G) has faulted a ruling ordering the Labour Party (LP) to conduct a fresh governorship primary in Enugu state.

The federal high court sitting in Abuja had, on Wednesday, nullified the nomination of Chijioke Edeoga as the LP candidate in Enugu state.

In his ruling on a suit instituted by Evarest Nnaji, a governorship hopeful, wherein the latter claimed he was unlawfully excluded from the primary, Nkonye Maha, the presiding judge, ordered that another primary be conducted within 14 days.

In a statement on Sunday, Odinaka Okechukwu, the group’s national coordinator, said the court “over-reached” with its verdict.

“The Electoral Act is deliberate and clear that every party must conclude its primary election not later than 150 days to the governorship election,” he said.

“But the period from the date of the court judgment on November 9, 2022 to the governorship election scheduled to take place on March 11, 2023, is about 122 days.

“Section 84 (13) of the Act unequivocally provides, ‘Where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue’.

“Therefore, the Federal High Court cannot, by default, change the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“If the law says you must conduct primary elections at a given time, before you can go against it, you must bring application before the court to set aside the provisions, and there is no such application or ruling and, to that extent, the court lacks the powers to gift LP additional time outside the timeframe already set by the law, especially when LP failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the first place.

“Instructively, about the same day, a Federal High Court in Guzau annulled the PDP governorship primary in Zamfara State for non-compliance with the Electoral Act and consequently declared that the PDP would field no candidate in the 2023 Zamfara governorship election.

“The reverse effect of the Federal High Court, Abuja, judgment in shifting the legally-set timeframe for conduct of primary election in the case of Enugu LP is both promotion of anarchy and double standard.

“We, therefore, call on INEC and every party, including the PDP and APGA, that fielded governorship candidates in the forthcoming election in Enugu State, to challenge the judgment.”