The highest and final Court in Nigeria on Friday affirmed that the incumbent Governor of Ebonyi State, Engineer Dave Umahi is the rightful candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Ebonyi South Senatorial seat in the 2023 electiion.
This followed the dismissal by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, an appeal filed by the only female contender for the ticket, Princess Ann Agom-Eze, challenging the submission of the name of Umahi to INEC by the All Progressives Congress.
A five-man panel of the Apex Court led by Justice MO. Kekere-Ekun held that the appeal of Princess Agom-Eze who claimed that she is APC’s authentic candidate for the zone, lacked merit.
Also, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had on 30th September, 2022 upheld the judgement of the lower Court which affirmed Umahi’s ticket.
The legal tussle which has now ended with the decision of the Supreme Court, had started after the 28th May, 2022 APC Ebonyi South Senatorial district primary election was won by Chief Austin Umahi, in which Agom-Eze emerged second.
At that time, the Governor was in the race for the APC presidential primary ticket in Abuja, but lost to Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State.
After his loss at the presidential primary, Austin, Governor Dave Umahi's younger brother was said to have willfully withdrawn from the Ebonyi South Senatorial seast contest and returned his APC ticket to the Governor, a development that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), disagreed with.
The matter went before a Federal High Court in Abakaliki which faulted the ticket transfer process, but did not make a consequential order as to whether Princess Ann Agom-Eze was the rightful candidate, instead the Court ordered a fresh primary election within 14 days.
That poll held on 31st July, 2022 and was eventually won by Governor Dave Umahi.
Agom-Eze disagreed with the judgement of the Abakaliki Court and headed for appeal where she equally lost,as the Court of Appeal backed the fresh APC primary which produced Governor Umahi as the candidate, stating that poll was observed by relevant stakeholders including INEC.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed with appellate court’s decision thereby putting to an end all litigations as it affirmed Governor Dave Umahi as the real and authentic candidate of the APC in the Ebonyi South Senatorial zone contest.
