Governor Ikpeazu
Governor Ikpeazu

Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu was today removed from office by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. The court went on to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to issue a certificate of return to the candidate who came second to Ikpeazu in the governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party of December, 2014, in the state, Samson Ogah. Indeed, the judge, Justice Okon Abang ordered Ikpeazu to vacate the governorship seat immediately and hand over to Ogah.

The suit leading to the removal of Ikpeazu was filed on December 22, 2014 by Messrs Obasi Eke and Chukwuemeka Mba. They had sought that the court disqualified Ikpeazu from contesting the governorship, alleging that he had failed to pay his personal income tax for two years and was therefore not qualified, according to provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, to run for the office.

In the suit, the two men sought a declaration from the court that Ikpeazu, “having failed and/or refused to pay his personal income tax promptly as and when due for the years 2010 and 2011 in compliance with the mandatory provisions of Section 24(f) of the CFRN, 1999, as amended, as well as paragraph 13 of Part IV of the Electoral Guidelines for Primary Elections 2014 is not a fit and proper person to contest the gubernatorial election of Abia State in the 2015 general election, and is accordingly disqualified from contesting the election.”

The plaintiffs asked the court to stop the PDP from presenting Ikpeazu as its canditate for the governorship election of 2015 and to stop INEC from accepting him as such. They also wanted the court to pronounce the candidate who polled the second highest number of votes cast at the primary election as the party’s candidate.

In sacking Okezie Ikpeazu from the governorship seat of Abia State today, the court obviously granted the prayers by both men.