After some months of legal fireworks, the Supreme Court in Abuja has affirmed former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
The apex court also returned Chief Victor Oye as the national chairman of the party.
In a judgment of five- man panel of Justices of the court on Thursday, the appeal filed by one Jude Okeke was dismissed on the ground of being an abuse of court process and lacking in merit and substance.
While delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mary Odili awarded a sum of N1 million against Jude Okeke to be paid to APGA and and Victor Oye.
Justice Odili equally upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kano division which had earlier dismissed the suit of Okeke.
Blueprint recalls that the Court of Appeal dismissed the Jigawa high court decisions, saying it lacked jurisdiction over the matter and should there be aside.
Justice Odili noted that the appellants in the desperate bid to abuse the court moved their cases from Anambra states to Imo and later to Jigawa state where they eventually got judgment in their favour on March 31, 2021.
The Jigawa high court judgment delivered in March was also voided and set aside by the Court of Appeal, Kano division on March 8, 2021 on the ground that the high court of Jigawa lacked jurisdiction to have entertained the suit.
In its delivery, the apex court lambasted the appellants for engaging in forum shopping, the court held; ” This amounts to crass abuse of court process an attempt to get favourable judgment to suit your own purposes.
“Okeke and some other lawyers out there should stop misleading the court through multiple cases over the same subject matters,” Odili held further.
The Supreme Court also agreed that the election of officers of political officers was an internal affair of respective parties and cannot be challenged in court.
