May 12, 2017.
By Ijendu Iheaka
Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia state on Friday went agog with jubilations and celebrations at the announcement of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s victory at the Supreme Court.
Supporters of the governor were seen firing cannon shots at Aba Town Hall, throwing bangers and making fireworks at Pound Road, Ogbor Hill and adjoining neighbourhoods.
At Ikpeazu’s home town of Umuobiakwa in Obingwa local government area, women were seen singing songs of victory and dancing while young people in large numbers thronged to his house.
Some residents who spoke to our reporter said that they were happy because all Abia’s election cases had been disposed off to enable Ikpeazu work for them.
Charity Iheanacho from UmuNwoke in Umuobiakwa said, “we are happy for the victory of Okezie Ikpeazu. We thank God for making the truth known today about the matter.
“Okezie will rule Abia for eight years; he is not a greedy man; he is a helper of the needy; he is doing us well and I pray that God will help him to succeed in this leadership position.”
Mrs Grace Ogolo who spoke to our reporter at Ogbor Hill said that the contestants are brothers and rather than squabble, they should join hands to make the state better.
“Anybody that knows God will not be making cases because God does not encourage problems.
“Now that Ikpeazu has won, my advice to him is to put his eyes down and plan things well so that both the poor and the rich will benefit from his leadership,” she said.
Mr Eze Onuoha, a resident of Aba said that the dismissal of Uche Ogah’s case by the Supreme Court after a long legal tussle was good for Abia people.
He urged Ikpeazu to understand that his failure or success in office started after the cases had ended.
Onuoha said that the governor should know that he would be held responsible for Abia state’s success or failure in his tenure and should not make any excuses as much is expected of him.
The legal battle was instituted by Dr Uche Ogah of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against Ikpeazu, claiming that the later was not qualified to have contested the 2015 Abia governorship election on the platform of PDP.
Ogah claimed that the Ikpeazu submitted false information in his form CF001 which by provision of section 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 made him ineligible to stand for election.
Ogah, who came second in the governorship primary election of the PDP of 2014, approached the Federal High Court asking it to nullify the nomination and sponsorship of Ikpeazu on the grounds of supply of false information relating to his tax papers.
Justice Okon Abang, in his judgment at the High Court on June 27 agreed with Ogah and nullified the nomination of Ikpeazu.
He replaced the governor with Ogah as the qualified PDP candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Abia and the governor appealed the judgement.
The Appeal Court however, in its judgment on August 18 disagreed with Abang and set aside his judgment for lacking in merit and upheld the nomination of Ikpeazu which led to the case being taken to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday said the the case was baseless
A five-member panel of Supreme court justices led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, upheld the August 18 decision of the Appeal Court.
According to Onnoghen, I’m a government employee and it is also common knowledge that tax is deducted at source.
“They give you a tax clearance certificate, you are not the person who produced the tax certificate.
”If they say bring your tax clearance, I have my file and my pay slip, if you ask I will say this is my pay slip.
“If they don’t send it on time I will ask for my tax clearance because I may need it.
”When they send it to me and there is anything wrong with it, why should I be held responsible?
”The long and short of it was that this case was a no case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ikpeazu has dedicated his victory over Uche Ogah at the Supreme Court, Abuja, to the people of Abia state who he said had supported him through the period of two years his election matters lasted.
The dedication was contained in a statement signed and distributed to newsmen in Aba by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Enyinnaya Appolos.
Ikpeazu said that his Supreme court victory was a confirmation of the Abia people’s mandate given to him to lead them adding that the mandate had twice been confirmed by the apex court.
He said that only God would take glory for the victory and commended the judiciary for standing firm on the side of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The governor called on all Abians to join hands with him to ensure accelerated growth and development of the state.
“The time of politics is long over, and I have forgiven all those who were bent on distracting me.
“Let all well meaning Abians, including my opponents come and join us to grow and develop our state without distractions as we ultimately have stakes in the growth and development of our state and people.
“Today there is work to do in Abia and history will judge us by how much of that work that we did, not by how much politics we played.
“My doors are open to all. My ears are open to hear and my eyes are strong enough to read suggestions on how we can best deliver greater dividends to those who really matter; the great people of Abia state”, he said.
By Ijendu Iheaka
Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia state on Friday went agog with jubilations and celebrations at the announcement of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s victory at the Supreme Court.
Supporters of the governor were seen firing cannon shots at Aba Town Hall, throwing bangers and making fireworks at Pound Road, Ogbor Hill and adjoining neighbourhoods.
At Ikpeazu’s home town of Umuobiakwa in Obingwa local government area, women were seen singing songs of victory and dancing while young people in large numbers thronged to his house.
Some residents who spoke to our reporter said that they were happy because all Abia’s election cases had been disposed off to enable Ikpeazu work for them.
Charity Iheanacho from UmuNwoke in Umuobiakwa said, “we are happy for the victory of Okezie Ikpeazu. We thank God for making the truth known today about the matter.
“Okezie will rule Abia for eight years; he is not a greedy man; he is a helper of the needy; he is doing us well and I pray that God will help him to succeed in this leadership position.”
Mrs Grace Ogolo who spoke to our reporter at Ogbor Hill said that the contestants are brothers and rather than squabble, they should join hands to make the state better.
“Anybody that knows God will not be making cases because God does not encourage problems.
“Now that Ikpeazu has won, my advice to him is to put his eyes down and plan things well so that both the poor and the rich will benefit from his leadership,” she said.
Mr Eze Onuoha, a resident of Aba said that the dismissal of Uche Ogah’s case by the Supreme Court after a long legal tussle was good for Abia people.
He urged Ikpeazu to understand that his failure or success in office started after the cases had ended.
Onuoha said that the governor should know that he would be held responsible for Abia state’s success or failure in his tenure and should not make any excuses as much is expected of him.
The legal battle was instituted by Dr Uche Ogah of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against Ikpeazu, claiming that the later was not qualified to have contested the 2015 Abia governorship election on the platform of PDP.
Ogah claimed that the Ikpeazu submitted false information in his form CF001 which by provision of section 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 made him ineligible to stand for election.
Ogah, who came second in the governorship primary election of the PDP of 2014, approached the Federal High Court asking it to nullify the nomination and sponsorship of Ikpeazu on the grounds of supply of false information relating to his tax papers.
Justice Okon Abang, in his judgment at the High Court on June 27 agreed with Ogah and nullified the nomination of Ikpeazu.
He replaced the governor with Ogah as the qualified PDP candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Abia and the governor appealed the judgement.
The Appeal Court however, in its judgment on August 18 disagreed with Abang and set aside his judgment for lacking in merit and upheld the nomination of Ikpeazu which led to the case being taken to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday said the the case was baseless
A five-member panel of Supreme court justices led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, upheld the August 18 decision of the Appeal Court.
According to Onnoghen, I’m a government employee and it is also common knowledge that tax is deducted at source.
“They give you a tax clearance certificate, you are not the person who produced the tax certificate.
”If they say bring your tax clearance, I have my file and my pay slip, if you ask I will say this is my pay slip.
“If they don’t send it on time I will ask for my tax clearance because I may need it.
”When they send it to me and there is anything wrong with it, why should I be held responsible?
”The long and short of it was that this case was a no case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ikpeazu has dedicated his victory over Uche Ogah at the Supreme Court, Abuja, to the people of Abia state who he said had supported him through the period of two years his election matters lasted.
The dedication was contained in a statement signed and distributed to newsmen in Aba by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Enyinnaya Appolos.
Ikpeazu said that his Supreme court victory was a confirmation of the Abia people’s mandate given to him to lead them adding that the mandate had twice been confirmed by the apex court.
He said that only God would take glory for the victory and commended the judiciary for standing firm on the side of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The governor called on all Abians to join hands with him to ensure accelerated growth and development of the state.
“The time of politics is long over, and I have forgiven all those who were bent on distracting me.
“Let all well meaning Abians, including my opponents come and join us to grow and develop our state without distractions as we ultimately have stakes in the growth and development of our state and people.
“Today there is work to do in Abia and history will judge us by how much of that work that we did, not by how much politics we played.
“My doors are open to all. My ears are open to hear and my eyes are strong enough to read suggestions on how we can best deliver greater dividends to those who really matter; the great people of Abia state”, he said.
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