By CHARLES IWUOHA

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, Barr. Silas Ọnụ, has said that Dr. Chukwuma Ifeanyi Odii remains the party’s undisputed governorship candidate in the 2023 election.

Ọnụ was reacting on heels of Abuja division of court of appeal on Thursday, September 1, 2022 nullifiying the primary elections of PDP held on June 4and 5, 2022 which declared Chukwuma Ifeanyi Odii the authentic of the party in Ebonyi State.

Although, the appeal court equally upheld the primaries and reinstated Senator Obinna Ogba as the duly nominated candidte of PDP in the forthcoming governorship election.

The appeal court also held that no valid election was conducted on May 28 and 29, 2022 as the party through its National working committee (NWC), cancelled the scheduled primary election on the said date.

The PDP chieftain recently went to the Supreme Court to challenge his removal by the Court of Appeal as the Ebonyi State Chairman of the party.

In a statement issued in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State on Thursday, Ọnụ stated that there is no Court order anywhere asking the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) to replace him (Ogba) as a candidate.

The statement reads in part: “Today, September 1, 2022 I went to the Court of Appeal for the judgment in an Appeal lodged by Sen. Obinna Joseph Ogba (the embattled governorship aspirant) and was genuinely concerned about the outcome.

“I was concerned because his people often bragged about controlling the outcome of Court of Appeal decision and somehow, it turns out to be the case. However, while he boasts of owning the Court of Appeal, he forgets the “God factor” in the affairs of men.

“Somehow, he always wins the appeal, but fails to reap any benefit therefrom. The first appeal, he had hoped that he will be declared as winner and even had a party two days before the judgment was read.

“He won, but was not declared. Instead, a retrial was ordered. Then, today, he as always, had bragged about how he will be declared the candidate by the Court of Appeal. However, God stepped in again and got the Court of appeal to dismiss the trial court judgment without making any positive order for Obinna Ogba to benefit from. The court granted him a victory without benefit.”

According to Ọnụ, the Court of Appeal held that there were two primary elections for Governorship in Ebonyi State which held on May 29 and June 5, respectively.

Continue, stated that the appeal court went further to hold that where such is the case, the Court cannot select for the political party the primary election it prefers.

Adding that it is totally up to the political party to decide which of the primaries it want to rely on. "You can see that no positive order was made to decide which of the two should be relied on.

"Now, with the decision of the Court of Appeal today, the decision is on the desk of PDP. The interesting part is that the party is out of time to pick and choose who its preferred candidate is. This is so as the time for substitution of candidates has closed and only a positive order directed at INEC can lead to the change of a name already submitted.

“At this juncture, Obinna Ogba is out of time to file any action to compel INEC for substitute the name submitted by the PDP as 14 has passed. In fact, as it stands today, AnyiChuks can discontinue his Appeal at the Supreme Court and abandon the ordered retrial and still remain as the candidate of PDP without any challenge.”

He, however, urge the jubilant Ogba and his team to stop misinforming the general public over an appeal that confers zero benefits.