Lawyer who represented Senator Athan Nneji Achonu at the Appeal Court, Barr. Ihejiagwa Calistus, says Achonu remains the authentic Imo State gubernatorial candidate of LP in the November 11 2023 election.
He stated this while reacting to the Appeal Court ruling in the application of Leave of Court filled before it by Achonu.
The Appeal Court which sat in Owerri, presided by Justices JH Sankey, SA Bola and ML Abubakar, had on Friday ruled that the application brought before it by the LP factional guber candidate, Achonu, lacked competence, as it struck the petition out.
He disclosed that “in the eyes of the law – in fact, in INEC record, Senator Athan Nneji Achonu remains or is the candidate of Labour Party in November 11 2023 gubernatorial election. By God’s grace and by overwhelming support and vote of Imo people, he will win the election”.
Achonu’s lawyer in the matter who commended the Court for rendering quick judgement, submitted that the Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit.
“I must commend their Lordships for a well considered ruling. For the public, you need to know that Court remains last hope of the common man and there is certainty in Court’s proceedings and judgment.
Today, we saw the Court reaffirms the trite principles of law – that where there is no jurisdiction- that anything done is nullity no matter how well conducted”.
Ihejiagwa said the “Court emphatically stated that once a Court lacks jurisdiction for whatever purposes, there are lay down steps that you must take before Court can invoke or have jurisdiction where any of them is lacking – anything done in Court or any pronouncement in Court is a nullity. That is what the Court said today – that the Notice of Appeal we filled was filled without a Leave and the Court accordingly struck it out”.
He said their party is okay with the ruling, saying “if you recall, in the judgment of the Federal High Court in Bayelsa State on 23rd of June 2023, the Court emphatically said that it has no jurisdiction in that matter and the Court on that basis dismissed the suit, but some of our friends went to town and jubilated, that the Court has declared them winner in a proceeding where Court said it has no jurisdiction just as it did today”.
The lawyer stressed that “no matter what is before it when Court lacks jurisdiction everything becomes nullity. And I ask them, can you read from a judgment where the court said it had no jurisdiction.
The answer is no. The Court did exceptionally well by considering the whole matter within few days”.
