A female senatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, Mrs. Ann Agom-Eze, has defeated the state governor, Engr David Umahi today in the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, the state capital.
Mrs. Agom-eze, was a former Permanent Secretary at Ebonyi State Ministry of Lands, Survey and Housing.
She had dragged Governor Umahi and his younger brother, Mr. Austin Umahi, to court over the Ebonyi South APC senatorial primary election wherein she came second, while Austin Umahi came first.
The younger Umahi, however, withdrew from the election and relinquished the ticket to his elder brother, Engr. Umahi.
The action attracted the ire of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which swiftly nullified Umahi’s candidacy.
The electoral umpire later omitted Umahi’s name as it never monitored the rerun primary that produced the governor as a candidate.
Governor Umahi went to the Federal High Court in Abakaliki seeking order of court for INEC to publish his name as senatorial candidate for Ebonyi South.
Ann Agom-eze promptly applied to be joined in the suit.
Delivering his judgment this morning on the suit, Justice Fatun Odohi Riman cited section 115 of the electoral act which forbids a person standing two different primary elections in the same year.
Justice Riman said in his judgment that such a person, if found claiming to participate in two primary elections, risks two years jail term.
He said that the authentic candidate of the APC is Ann Agom-Eze since Austin Umahi withdrew from the Senatorial race.
In the meantime, there is wild jubilation in the camp of Mrs Ann Agom-Eze who, her supporters claim, ‘turned into a proverbial David to defeat Goliath’.
Governor Umahi, it could be recalled, also recently lost out at the recently held APC presidential primary election wherein he came a distant sixth position with a paltry 38 votes.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the primary election held on June 7/June 8, 2022, at the Eagles Square in Abuja, emerging the party’s presidential flag bearer in the 2023 general election with 1,271 votes.