The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Thursday nullified the April 3, 2019 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja which sacked Senator Peter Nwaoboshi as the Senator-elect for Delta North Senatorial District.

The Federal High Court had by its  judgment declared Ned Nwoko as the true candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for the February 23, 2019 National Assembly election.

The court in its decision said the case instituted at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court which resulted in the recognition of Mr. Nwoko as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrongly filed.

In a unanimous judgment, the three-man panel of the Appeal Court held that the judgment of the Abuja Federal High Court was a nullity as the said court lacked jurisdiction to have entertained the case filed by Nwoko.

Reading the lead judgment of the panel, Justice Mohammed Idris held that the suit filed by Nwoko was statute-barred and that Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja ought not to have heard the case in the first place.

The appellate court ruled that the matter ought to have been brought to the lower court before the expiration of 14 days from the time of the incidence which gave rise to the suit.

“As at the time the matter was instituted at the Federal High Court, the case was statute-barred. We set aside the decision of the Federal High Court and strike out the case,” the court ruled.

After the initial High Court ruling, INEC withdrew the certificate issued to Mr. Nwaoboshi and presented same to Mr. Nwoko, a decision that would now be reversed following the Appeal Court’s ruling.

Nwoko and Nwaoboshi, both candidates of the PDP  had contested for the ticket of the party in the primaries. The PDP later won the senatorial election in the district with Mr. Nwaoboshi as its candidate.