The presiding judge in the suit filed by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State seeking to be issued with certificate of return as senator-elect has withdrawn from suit.
Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo of the Federal
High Court, Abuja on Monday withdrew and remitted the case to the Chief
Judge of the court, Justice Abdul Kafarati.
The decision
followed the applications and a letter to the Chief Judge of the court
dated April 8, 2019, by both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
candidate in the Imo West Senatorial zone, Jones Onyeriri and the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Osita Izunaso asking the
judge to disqualify himself from the matter.
The parties had in
their letters after the hearing on Friday April 5, asked the court to
disqualify himself from the case having “clearly prejudged the
substantive issues that will be resolved in this matter and clearly
showed he has taken sides with the plaintiff (Okorocha).”
Izunaso,
through his counsel, Orji Nwafor-Orizu argued that there is likelihood
of bias on the part of Justice Taiwo if he continued to hear the case.
“The
humble submission of the 3rd Defendant (Izunaso) is that the judge
presiding at the FHC is disqualified from continued sitting in this case
because the presiding judge already indicated partisanship and opinion
antagonistic to the 3rd Defendant (Izunaso) before the 3rd Defendant is
heard,” Nwafor-Orizu said.
The judge had on Friday admitted four
candidates and political parties in the election who were challenging
the suit by Okorocha. They are: Nwachukwu Goodluck Clement of KOWA
Party; Uche Onyeoma Ibe of Labour Party; Precious Nwadike of the United
Progressive Party (UPP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The
parties had filed objections to INEC issuing certificate of return to
Okorocha and rather contended that since return was yet to be made
before he allegedly held the Returning Officer under duress, the matter
can only be handled at the Elections Petitions Tribunal.
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