Ikpeazu’s Governorship: Appeal Court Nullifies High Court Judgement

An Appeal Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, has ruled that the removal of the Abia State Governor, Mr Okezie Ikpeazu, by a lower court was null and void.
The court on Thursday set aside the judgement of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, sacking Mr Ikpeazu over allegations of  poor documentation.
In the lead judgement read by Justice Ibrahim Bdliya the Appeal Court insisted that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and that any decision that flowed from it was null and void.
The five-man panel stressed that the law has laid down principles by which a case could be instituted.
Explaining that the process was wrong, Justice Bdilya said that on the motion which led to the appeal, three people indicated themselves as lawyers and signed the document while the law says only an identifiable legal practitioner can do so.
He added that it was not the business of the court to embark on a voyage of helping a litigant decide who filed his case.
Justice Bdilya said:”As such, the lower court erred in its deciding for the litigants,” he insisted.
“To this end the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter because the initiation process of the suit was not properly done.
“Therefore any decision taken by it flowing from that suit is null and void”.
The Appeal Court ruled on three out of six appeals filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, under which Governor Ipeakzu won the governorship election.

According to the court, the issues are identical and as such it adopts the ruling of the previous judgement