Abia: APGA candidate sends SOS to court of Appeal President

Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance for Abia Central Senatorial District in March 28, 2015 National Assembly election, Chief Emmanuel Ahamdi Nweke has appealed to the President of the Court of Appeal to mandate Justice A. Onigbanjo to direct the Election Petition Tribunal Panel sitting in Abia State to hand over to him, the judgment delivered in a case between him and the immediate past Governor of the state senator Theodore A. Orji.

Nweke was at the Election Petition Tribunal challenging the declaration of Chief Orji the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The APGA candidate in a release that he personally signed and issued to various newsmen in the state said the reason why he was calling on the Court of Appeal President was because of the refusal of the election petition tribunal to hand over to him, both the handwritten and typed copies of the judgment delivered by the election petition tribunal.

Nweke feared that the continued delay to hand over to him copies of the judgment was going to hamper the process of appealing the judgment owing to the limited number of days for him to file his appeal as he and his legal team needed to study the judgment properly before appealing, alleged that it was a process to stop him and the people of Abia Central Senatorial District from reclaiming the justice that they were denied by the INEC.

The APGA candidate lamenting the inability of the tribunal to give his lawyer a copy of the judgment on or before the day the judgment was read in court feared that there could be possible alteration on the judgment delivered in court.


“My lawyer went to the Tribunal’s secretariat and waited till 5pm on Monday, but they could not make the copy available to him. I telephoned the Abia Tribunal’s Secretary, Mr Olalere and he informed me that the delay was because the Tribunal Chairman Justice A. Onigbanjo had directed that he wants to personally vet the judgment for Barr Nweke’s petition before it is given out to him.”

He stated that Mr Olalere further informed him that judgment in his petition was handwritten and delivered longhand instead of typed unlike the other judgments delivered by the same Tribunal.

He questioned why judgment in his petition was delivered longhand despite the fact that it was the first hearing concluded by the Tribunal and complained why “one week after the incredibly biased ruling the Judge has refused to approve copy of his own judgment being handed to him.

Nweke who decried the delay which he described as ‘suspicious at best’, expressed concern on the effect of refusal by the Judges to give him a copy of the judgment in view of the time limits for filing appeals.

Fearing there might be unjust alterations to the wording of the judgment as originally delivered in open court, Nweke called on the President of the Court of Appeal to mandate Justice A. Onigbanjo to give him both the type written judgment and the judgment in longhand as read out in court.

“I am appealing to the President Court of Appeal to ask the Election Petition Tribunal to furnish me with the judgment; both the handwritten and the typed one. This will enable me pursue my case at the Appeal Court. It is more than one week after the judgment was given and I am yet to have a copy of the judgment. It is unfair and could be termed as a way of delaying to the Appeal Court to further pursue my case which I am confident that I am going to get”.

He appealed to his supporters to remain calm and be fervent in their prayers for him and other APGA candidates as they pushes to appeal and to reclaim “people’s stolen mandate”.