Governor Okezie Ikpeazu wins round one in Abia guber tussle: Federal High Court dismisses Nwosu’s suit

www.odogwublog.com reports that Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has won round one in the Abia debacle.
Already the hope of Chief Friday Nwosu assuming office to replace as the Governor of Abia State was on this afternoon dashed as a Federal High Court sitting in Owerri dismissed his suit, saying he failed to justify his claim that the tax certificate submitted by Ikpeazu was forged.
Justice Lewis Allagoa while delivering his judgment held that apart from  looking at documents in litigation, proving a case of forgery required adequate clarification and addition proof by experts before a forgery claim can be established by law.
On the claim that Ikpeazu was not properly taxed in the year 2011, Justice Allagoa held that it was not in the position of Ikpeazu, but that of the tax official to determine how he should be taxed.
Further, he maintained that since the issuing authority (Abia State Board of Internal Revenue) was not joined in the suit nor an expert engaged to ascertain the authenticity of the document, it would  be unlawful for the court to rule in favour of the plaintiff.
On the relief seeking to dismiss the claim to the governorship position by Dr Uche Ogah, the court  ruled in favour of the Nwosu, saying "Ogah  is not eligible to enjoy the outcome of the PDP primary because he rejected the result of the primary".
However, Justice Allagoa had earlier favoured Nwosu on two other grounds; that the originating summons filed was properly filed and that the Federal High Court had jurisdiction to hear the pre-election suit.
Reacting to the judgment which lasted more than two hours, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), J.T.U. Nnodum and Theo Nkire who represented the Independent National Electoral Commission, PDP and Ikpeazu respectively said that the judgment was a landmark one.
Nkire specifically commended the Judge for his ingenuity in reviewing all issues raised by the different parties and at the end gave a sound judgment that would be hard to fault elsewhere.
Mr Francis Unyimadu, the plaintiff counsel also thanked the court for the judgment and added that his client will critically look at the judgment and know what to do next.
The hearing which attracted many supporters especially Dr Ikpeazu's
supporters who  attended the court in their uniforms were dancing and singing songs of thanksgiving for the victory which they said had adequately addressed the recent distractions to Ikpeazu.
Nwosu one of the guber aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the December 8, 2014 primaries had  approached the court requesting that he be declared Abia Governor on the grounds that Ikpeazu was not qualified to represent PDP during 2015 election.