S’Court dismisses Uba’s motion for joinder

[Mirror]

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application filed by Senator Andy Uba, where he sought the leave of the court to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which restored the candidature of Mr. Tony Nwoye.

Delivering ruling in the motion, a five-man panel of the apex court presided over by Justice Tanko Mohammed, held that the motion is "unmeritorious".

The apex court held thus:"The applicant has already filed an appeal against the refusal to grant him leave. This application is a parallel one. The application for that reason constitutes an abuse of court process.

"I find the application unmeritorious." It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, had nullified the election of Nwoye as candidate of the PDP for the November 16 gubernatorial election.

Delivering judgement in a suit instituted by Nicholas Ukachukwu, who came second in the August 24 primaries conducted by the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the PDP, the court held that Nwoye's nomination could not stand, against the backdrop of issues relating to his alleged failure to provide tax clearance certificates.

However, Nwoye appealed against the above decision to the Court of Appeal, which accordingly, granted his reliefs and restored his candidacy, in line with his emergence and validation by the party's NEC on August 24.

In his motion for leave to appeal, counsel to Uba, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) told a five-man panel of the apex court presided over by Justice Mohammed that his application was to enable his client to be joined as an interested party.

He told the court that the applicant before it, was neither allowed the right to be heard by the federal high court nor the Court of Appeal.

In opposition to this, however, counsel to PDP, Mr. Paul Erokoro (SAN), submitted that Uba has no "locus standi" to enter the matter, having not participated in the primaries which threw up Nwoye. Erokoro, therefore, urged the apex court to dismiss the application on the grounds that it is incompetent and an abuse of court process.

He concluded by saying that since Uba participated in the primaries conducted by Ejike Ogbuebego, he cannot now ask to be joined in a suit arising from the result of another exercise.