Ikpeazu asks Appeal Court to quash sack order

Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has filed an appeal against Monday’s judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which removed him from office on charges of tax evasion.

 

In the notice of appeal filed by Chief Adegboye­ga Awomolo (SAN) at the Appeal Court, Abuja Di­vision, the Ikpeazu raised five grounds upon which he asked the appellate court to set aside the judgment and order of the lower court.

Ikpeazu said that the Federal High Court lacked the power to order him to vacate the seat of Abia State governor.

 

According to Ikpeazu, “The trial judge erred in law when he ordered as a con­sequential order that the appellant vacates his office as the governor of Abia state immediately when there was no jurisdiction in the Federal High Court to re­move, vacate the occupier of the office of the governor of a state or order the removal of such officer after the unsuc­cessful challenge of the result of the election at the tribunal and swearing in of the appel­lant as the governor.”

The governor said that the only power, authority and or­der exercisable by the Federal High Court was to disquali­fy the candidate from con­testing the election based on Section 31(6) of the Elector­al Act 2010.

He also faulted the judge when he held that he did not pay his tax for 2011, 2012 and 2013, as at when due, when he was a public officer whose tax deduction was under Pay As You Earn (PAYE) scheme where tax deductions were from the source of his month­ly salary by the tax authorities who issued all the tax receipts and certificates.

He also said that the Abia State Board of Internal Rev­enue Services that issued him the tax certificates had not declared the certificates forged and that the trial court did not invite the issuing au­thorities to give evidence in the course of the trial.

The governor said that the plaintiff, Dr. Samson Udechukwu Ogah, was not a member of staff of the Abia Board of Internal Revenue and did not call any official of the board to testify that the tax certificates were forged.

Ikpeazu therefore accused the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, of violating his right to fair hearing by embark­ing on judicial investigation without giving him (the gov­ernor) the opportunity to ad­dress the court on the issue.

The governor further ar­gued that “the learned trial judge erred in law when he held that the appellant pre­sented false information to the Independent Nation­al Electoral Commission (INEC) by his meticulous study and investigation of documents filed in courts in the recess of his cham­bers and thereby violated the right of the appellant to fair hearing.”

The governor said that the judge had no duty to inves­tigate the contents of docu­ments dumped on the court in the recess of his chambers with a view to finding for the plaintiff.

“The decision of the judge which arose from the judicial investigation without oppor­tunity to the appellant violat­ed the appellant’s right to fair hearing,” the governor said.

Ikepazu also rejected the decision of the high court declaring him unqualified to be nominated as the prima­ry election conducted by his party because false informa­tion was supplied to INEC.

According to him, INEC Form CF001 which the judge relied on was not one of the grounds of qualification to contest the primary election of the PDP.

He said that the judge misconceived the presenta­tion by the parties and there­by arrived at a wrong con­clusion which occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice.

Meanwhile, the gover­nor’s party, the PDP, has re­jected the judgment and filed a separate appeal. The PDP said that the trial court erred in law when it held that it had jurisdiction to hear the suit which was on whether sec­tion 24 (f) of the 1999 Con­stitution was complied with.

It said: “The honourable trial court misdirected itself when it construed the provi­sions of the PDP constitution to the detriment of the appel­lant without giving the appel­lant a chance to be heard and thereby occasioned a miscar­riage of justice.”

In the particulars of the error, the appellant said Uke­agbara and Mba being “the 1st and 2nd respondents in the appeal did not pray the trial court to construe the provisions of the PDP con­stitution.

“No evidence was led that the said Uche Sampson Ogah participated in the 2015 Abia State gubernatorial elec­tions, yet the trial court de­clared him as winner of the said elections contrary to the express provisions of section 141 of the Electoral Act.”

The PDP urged the Court of Appeal for “an order set­ting aside the judgment of the Federal High Court of Ni­geria in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/10862014 delivered on the 27th day of June, 2016.”

Justice Okon Abang had on Monday ordered Ikpea­zu’s removal from office for giving false information in the form submitted to the In­dependent National Elector­al Commission by the PDP, nominating him as its can­didate for the April 11, 2015 governorship election.

In two separate judg­ments, Justice Abang ordered Ikpeazu to vacate the office of the governor of Abia State.

The judge also directed INEC to issue a fresh Certif­icate of Return to the plaintiff in one of the two suits, Ogah, who was the first runner-up in the governorship prima­ry conducted by the PDP on December 8, 2014.

He had ordered that Ogah’s full entitlements be restored to him as governor of Abia State.

The judge made the or­ders after disqualifying Ik­peazu as the candidate of the PDP in the April 11, 2015, governorship election on the basis that he committed per­jury by giving false informa­tion in the Form 8C001 and documents accompanying it, which he and the PDP sub­mitted, nominating him to INEC as the party’s gover­norship candidate.