The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Monday upheld the election of a former Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Victor Umeh, as the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
A five-man panel of the court unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s Obiora Okonkwo.
The panel held in its judgment on Monday that Okonkwo’s appeal lacked merit.
Okonkwo had appealed against the January 12, 2018 ruling delivered by Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, setting aside his own (Justice Tsoho’s) earlier judgment of December 13, 2017.
Justice Tsoho had in the ruling which he later set aside on December 13, 2017 ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to issue a certificate of return to Okonkwo.
Okonkwo was dissatisfied with Justice Tsoho’s judgment setting aside the order directing INEC to issue him certificate of return.
He had appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal, in its judgment, held that Justice Tsoho was right to have set aside the consent judgment it delivered on December 13, 2017.
But delivering the Court of Appeal’s lead judgment on Monday, Justice Frederick Oho, held that the lower court was in order in setting aside the judgment because it was a nullity.
Justice Oho said the lower court had the inherent powers to set the records straight by setting aside the consent judgment once it was discovered that there were infractions leading to the judgment.
He noted that a court could sit as an appeal on its own case.
He, however, added that a court had the power to reverse itself if it discovered that its earlier judgment was obtained by fraud or that it was misled, as it was in the case under consideration.
