I Remain Senator-Elect, Nwaoboshi Cries Out

 By Shehu Bello

 The senator-elect for Delta North, Peter Nwaoboshi, Thursday said that he has not been sacked by any court.

 Nwaoboshi who is also the sitting senator representing the same Senatorial District, noted that contrary to report, no court sacked him as he was no longer the candidate of a political party but a senator-elect with certificate of return.

  He said that he has already filed a notice of appeal to challenge the ruling of Justice Ahmed R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on April, 3rd, 2019.  

The Delta North senator told reporters at a press conference in Abuja that apart from filing his notice of appeal, he has taken other steps to curtail what he described as “judicial rascality in the country.

 He noted that “the beauty of the Nigeria’s legal system is that we rely on precedence” adding that “what is even worrisome is that the same judge who delivered the judgement on April 3rd, has ruled on similar case that the case was filed out of time.”

Nwaoboshi who said that “this country must be civil” insisted that “this country is not where people believe and boast that they can buy judgement.”  

He said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) sponsored him “and my party has come to court to say that I am its candidate.”

He said, “I was not sacked and there was no order that said INEC should withdraw my certificate of return and it was not asked.

The court does not give what you did not ask because the court is not Father Christmas.”

 Nwaoboshi said that part of ground of his appeal is that the learned trial judge erred in law when he held that the suit was not caught by the 14 days rule in Section 285(9) Fourth Alteration to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

He noted that the primary election, subject matter of the suit was conducted on 2nd October, 2018 and the 14 days’ time allowed started running on the same 2nd October, 2018 when the primary election took place.

He said that another ground of appeal is that the learned trial judge erred in law when he held that he had jurisdiction to entertain the suit despite same being filed on 11th December, 2018 because the 1st respondent had earlier filed a suit before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which he withdrew and was truck out on 10th December, 2018.

He noted that “the self-same suit withdrawn before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was withdrawn because it was caught by the same 14 days rule in view of Section 285 (9) Fourth Alteration to the Constitution, 1999 (as amended)

The Federal High Court Abuja on Wednesday was reported to have sacked Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, the senator-elect for Delta North Senatorial District.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed gave the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Mr. Ned Nwoko challenging the election of Nwaoboshi as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the October 2, 2018 primaries of the party held in Delta.

The court held that Nwaoboshi, a serving senator, was not the duly elected candidate of the PDP in the primary election.

  Justice Mohammed ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to publish the name of Nwoko as PDP candidate, having established before the court that he scored the highest number of votes in the said primary election.