•We acted in compliance with your order, INEC tells judge
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja, Chucks Onuoha, Umuahia and Ola Kehinde-Balogun, Lagos
The Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday, deferred ruling on the application seeking to stay the implementation of its judgment ordering Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to vacate office over false information on his tax papers till Friday.
Justice Okon Abang who gave the judgment that sacked Ikpeazu and installed Uche Ogah on June 27 said all issues relating to the grant of stay as in the case of election petition including whether it is applicable to a pre-election matter as in the instant case, would on the said day, be determined.
He urged parties in the matter to file and exchange necessary process before the date to facilitate early hearing of the motion.
The motion praying the court to stay the judgment was filed by Ikpeazu through his counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun.
Ikpeazu in the motion asked Justice Abang to put the judgment, which removed him from office on hold pending the determination of his appeal at the Court of Appeal.
He told the court that the appeal had been entered at the appellate court and that necessary steps would be taken to facilitate quick determination of the appeal.
Justice Abang of the Federal High Court had on June 27 ordered Ikpeazu to vacate office with immediate effect.
He also ordered the governor to hand over to Ogah, who came second in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries in the state.
The judge further ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to Ogah who contested the governorship ticket with Ikpeazu.
However, among Abias, mixed reactions greeted the refusal of the court to vacate the order that Ogah be sworn, yesterday.
In Government House, Umuahia, anxiety and fear helf sway as residents made frantic efforts to get information that would give them succour. Nobody was sure of the next moment.
The Hilux vans that barricaded the main entrance into Abia Government House in the wake of the ruling were still there at the time of filing this report.
Entry into government House was tight as security operatives at the entrance and exit gate scrutinised every person in sight.
The usual hustling and bustling that characterise Government House was yet to return as people gather in small groups discussing in subdued tones.
But Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ikpeazu, Mr Appolos Enyinnaya assured his boss was still in charge, saying there was no cause for alarm.
Meanwhile, INEC defended the certificate of return it issued on Ogah, on June 28, saying it was in obedience to the judgment of the court. It explained that the certificate had already been issued before it received the processes of the notice of appeal against the judgment and a motion for stay of execution of the judgment by Ikpeazu.
Reacting to an application by Ikpeazu for adjournment of the hearing of his motion, the commission argued that the notice of appeal and the motion for stay of execution of the judgment did not operate as a stay of execution of a court’s verdict in a pre-election case.
It was the argument of INEC that the law would have expressly stated it, if it intended to make a notice of appeal to operate as a stay of execution in a pre-election case.
INEC explained that in the case of election petition, a notice of appeal operated as a stay of execution of a judgment delivered by an election petition tribunal in an election petition because section 143 (1) of the Electoral Act expressly provided for that:
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court, Owerri, Imo State presided over by Justice A.I. Alagoa, would on Friday rule in another case of alleged tax forgery instituted by a PDP guber aspirant in the 2014 party primaries, Sir Friday Nwosu.
Nwosu who ran for the December 8, 2014 governorship primaries in the state had accused Ikpeazu of submitting a forged tax clearance certificate. He prayed the court to disqualify him. Joined in the suit were the PDP, INEC and Oahu.
The parties adopted their written addresses. Nwosu prayed the court to grant his prayers by disqualifying Ikpeazu and declaring him governor. He added that the governor was not qualified to run for the primary election.
He argued that Ogah, who refused to sign the result and petitioned the PDP to conduct another primary election, had forfeited his right to benefit from the exercise.
However, political aides to Ogah, Samuel Uchechukwu and Onyekachi Ubani appealed to Ikpeazu to obey the court decision by vacating the seat.
Ubani called on the people of the state to remain calm and await the decision of the court while Uchechukwu said there was no reason for Ikpeazu to still parade himself as governor.
But in a swift reaction, Supreme Council of Ukwa Ngwa Youths, which described itself as the apex umbrella of all youths of Ukwa Ngwa Nation threatened to make Abia ungovernable if judgment of the Abuja Federal High Court which removed Ikpeazu from office was not reversed and the judge probed.
The Council frowned at the hurry in which certificate of return was issued to Ogah by INEC.
Also, elders and National Assembly members from the state yesterday threw their weight behind Ikpeazu and faulted the court ruling that ordered INEC to issue certificate of return to Ogah.
Rising from a meeting at the Abuja residence of former national chairman of the PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, the elders contended that the judgment was way off the mark.
The elders, in a communique, contended that the judge did not handle the case well stressing that the judgment was against the Electoral Act and well known decisions of superior courts to issue certificate of return to someone who never contested the governorship election.
They expressed worry over what they described as an attempt to plunge the state into anarchy. Equally the elders lampooned INEC for exacerbating the crisis in the state over its hasty issuance of the certificate “even after it was duly served with a notice of appeal of the said order and the motion for a stay of execution.”