Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Abuja Division of the Federal High
Court on Wednesday declined to continue with the case brought before the court
by the governor of Imo State, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, seeking an order t5o compel the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue to him a certificate of
return as the senator-elect for the Imo West Senatorial District.
Okorocha had challenged INEC to court for refusing to issue him with a certificate of return after he was declared winner of the February 23 senatorial election by the returning officer for the election, Prof. Francis Ibeawuchi.
Ibeawuchi who claimed that he announced the result under duress had declared Okorocha of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the poll, having polled 97,762 votes ahead of Mr. Jones Onyereri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had 68,117 votes.
Consequently, INEC refused to issue certificate of return to Okorocha, prompting the current court action.
However, at the hearing of the matter on Wednesday, Taiwo excused himself from adjudicating in it citing the allegation of bias levelled against him by Okorocha’s opponents in the February 23, 2019 election – Onyeriri of the PDP and Mr. Osita Izunaso of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The judge ordered that the case file be returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdul-Kafarati, for re-assignment to another judge.
Onyeriri sent a petition dated April 8, 2019 to Kafarati, demanding that the case file should be retrieved from Justice Taiwo and re-assigned to another judge of the court.
In the affidavit deposed to on his behalf by a lawyer, Chijioke Nzekwe, the PDP candidate stated that Justice Taiwo on April 5, 2019, had made a bias comment in favour of the plaintiff, Okorocha, when the judge allegedly told INEC’s lawyer, Wendy Kuku, that the commission was responsible for the problems arising from the election.
The affidavit added that Justice Taiwo had pre-judged the notices of preliminary objection filed by the 2nd and 3rd defendants (INEC and Onyeriri) when he allegedly said he had read through the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) and found nothing therein that robbed him of the jurisdiction to hear his suit.
For his part, Izunaso filed an application dated April 8, 2019 before the same judge dated April 8, 2019 asking Justice Taiwo to disqualify himself from further handling the matter and return it to the Chief Judge for re-assignment to another judge.
The application filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Orji Nwafor- Orizu, stated that “there is likelihood of bias on the part of this honourable court to continue to hear the suit as the honourable presiding judge has expressed an opinion favourable to the plaintiff even without the hearing of the substantive suit.”
The applicant stated that Justice Taiwo made the said utterances on April 5, 2019 allegedly showing that the judge had “clearly pre-judged the substantive issues that will be resolved in this matter and clearly showed that the honourable presiding judge has taken sides with the plaintiff.”
With Punch report
