The Federal High Court in Owerri on Wednesday March 27, 2013 dismissed the suit filed by Mrs. Ijeoma Nwafor seeking to nullify the January 8, 2010 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary for the Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru House of Representatives seat won by Hon. Bethel Amadi. The suit which had Hon. Bethel Amadi, the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as respondents, was instituted immediately after the January 8, 2010 Party primary on allegation of irregularities consisting of over-voting and holding the primary at the Dan Anyiam Stadium which is outside Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency.
Delivering the close to three-hour judgment, the trial judge held that based on Mrs. Ijeoma Nwafor’s pleading that there was over-voting by about 60 votes, if 33 invalid votes were subtracted, the actual over-voting would be 27 votes. The judge held that it was wrong for Mrs. Nwafor to argue that there were 33 invalid votes and at the same time, add the 33 invalid votes to the total number of votes to arrive at her conclusion. The Court held that if the 27 invalid votes were subtracted from the 590 votes credited to Hon. Bethel Amadi, that it still left Hon. Amadi with 563 which is still higher than the 546 votes received by Mrs. Nwafor. On the other hand, if the 27 votes were added to the 546 received by Mrs. Ijeoma Nwafor, the total votes of 573 was still lower than the 590 received by Hon. Bethel Amadi. The judge therefore concluded that Mrs. Ijeoma Nwafor has failed to sustain her claim that the over-voting affected the outcome of the said PDP primary.
On the claim that the primary election was held outside the Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency, the trial judge observed that the first respondent’s (PDP) evidence that the change of venue was necessitated by security concerns was not disputed or refuted by Mrs. Nwafor. The judge noted that Mrs. Nwafor did to protest against the change of venue before the primary and indeed, participated freely in the primary and only complained immediately after she lost the primary election.
In dismissing the suit, the Court awarded a cost of ten thousand Naira in favour of each of the three respondents (PDP, INEC, and Hon. Bethel Amadi) against Mrs. Ijeoma Nwafor.
Speaking after the judgment, A. Malik Esq., Counsel to Hon. Bethel Amadi, described the judgment as not only scholarly but impeccable advising politicians to learn to accept defeat whenever they lose elections instead of embarking on endless and fruitless litigations.
