Federal High Court Nullifies Ebonyi LG Council's Election

From Nwogha Ndubuisi, Abakaliki

The Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State has nullified the 13 local government council election held in the state. Speaking the presiding judge, Fatun Riman in a suit No.FHC/AI/CS/151/2022 ruled that the conduct of the exercise was undemocratic and unlawful, hence, declared it null and void. Recall that members of the Inter Party Advisory Council,(IPAC) had over the weekend petitioned the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission,(EBSIEC) over the exclusion of some political parties in the Council's election.

Also recall was that the opposition party leaders had asked the Federal High Court to cancel the election which was held on 30th July on the ground that the exercise was full of frivolity and does not give room for full participation of registered opposition counterpart during the election. Addressing Journalists, the Counsel to the plaintiff, Barr Mudi Erhenede applauded the court for upholding justice in the state. Erhenede described the election as unlawful where plaintiff were not briefed on the exact law that would regulate the exercise. According to him, "There are other issues with not compliance with the electoral act 2022. The electoral law 2022 said that the procedures for conducting elections into the local government areas by state Commissioners must comply with the procedure for conducting into area councils in the FCT. "If you look at it, how do you access compliance without law if you hide the law with which you want to conduct the election, is not when you make the law public that we'll know if you complied with it or not. How can you be making law and hide them? He added, " My position now is that my client has requested that they availed this law, we came under the freedom of information act it intending the procedure to conduct elections. "We wrote to EBSIEC, and to House of Assembly, and we wrote to INEC who it's his responsibility all of these bodies refused to provide us the law". In his reaction, the state governor called on Ebonyians to be calm and go about their businesses peacefully as there's no cause for alarm. The Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Strategy, Chooks Oko in the statement noted that it is on the record that none of the grounds of the litigants included nullification of the election but the court bizarrely came up with the order. He maintained that the election generally was acknowledged as peaceful and orderly as it followed all due procedures, therefore, assured them of the government lawyers studying the judgement to determine the best way forward. Attached pictures: