The attention of the Committee to Elect Casmir Anyanwu (COTECA) has been drawn to the continuous struggle and propaganda by Okey Ezeh to put himself up as the governorship candidate of the party even after he has been sacked by the Court. We wish to alert the general public that he is only mere grand standing and struggling to save face from the severe blow from the Court which not only jolted but kicked his inordinate ambition to the winds.
Okey Ezeh in his Press Conference Thursday informed the world that he has filed notice of appeal and stay of execution of the judgement of an Owerri Federal High Court, which ordered that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) reinstate Anyanwu as the rightful governorship candidate, which the national leadership corruptly ceded to Okey Ezeh.
In the usual expression of his desperation he exhibited a high degree of legal illiteracy which runs counter to his claim of high intellectual capacity. Need we educate him that mere filing of notice of appeal or stay of execution does not amount to a valid order of the court? Surprisingly, he admitted that he has not been served and yet claiming the governorship candidate position of the party. There is no stay of execution of the judgement. No other court either appellate or the one that gave the judgement has issued any contrary order. It is unfortunate that the Okey Ezeh cannot engage good lawyers. We want the world to know that all the orders made by the Federal High Court remain valid and subsisting. We challenge Okey Ezeh to produce a contrary order made by a valid Court in Nigeria.
We are aware that the Owerri Federal High Court is not sitting today or tomorrow (Friday) and we are aware that obtaining a stay of execution has to be through application from the same Court where the judgement was given. So where did Okey Ezeh make his application? We challenge Imo journalists to interrogate Okey Ezeh properly on his spurious claims to avoid misleading the public.
Outside the law, we challenge Okey Ezeh to tell the world how he emerged the governorship candidate of a party he was never a member of. How can Okey Ezeh up to moment be challenging the governorship candidature of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume of APGA to whom he lost on the 7th of October few hours after the SDP concluded its primaries and at the same time claiming the governorship of SDP?
We wish to remind Okey Ezeh that one of the grounds on which the Court gave its judgement is that a candidate running primary election has to do so in the state capital in which he is seeking to govern. The judge cited several authorities and decided cases to support this. If not by purchasing his mandate corruptly at Abuja where in Imo did he do his primary election? Imo people are by this put on notice on the kind of people who are seeking to govern them.
COTECA wishes to warn Okey Ezeh and his cohorts from further disparaging the person and reputation of our candidate which costs him so much to build. We have since cleared the damaging report on the alleged issue of Dr Casmir Anyanwu looting and killing the Progress Bank but today Gozie Nwachukwu, the Director Strategy and Planning of Okey Ezeh Campaign group published to the whole world in his address that Anyanwu collapsed Progress Bank and ran away with fake passport. We shall approach the authorities for them to prove this shortly.
Finally, we ask the world to ignore Okey Ezeh as a lawless desperado who wants to rule Imo at all cost by hook or crook. Dr. Casimir Anyanwu as at moment remains the authentic and duly elected governorship candidate of SDP and it is so in INEC record.
