The governorship ‘candidate’ on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election in Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Odii, has accused the factional governorship ‘candidate’ of the party and Senator representing Ebonyi Central Senatorial zone, Obinna Ogba, of flouting sacred orders of the Court of competent jurisdiction.
Odii stated this in a statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity, Anyichucks (Odii) Campaign Organisation, Chief Abia Onyike, on Friday, in Abakaliki.
Odii wondered why Ogba had allegedly refused to show some restraint and maturity by respecting the democratic processes and stop taking laws into his own hands.
Ogba and Odii had been enmeshed in a tussle over who was the authentic governorship flagbearer of the PDP in Ebonyi State for the 2023 general election. But a Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, on June 7, 2022, declared Odii as the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP in Ebonyi State and directed the party to submit his name to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Ogba has appealed the judgement.
But Odii, in the statement, on Friday, noted that Ogba’s conduct despite the Federal High Court order, was not only sacrilegious but also an act of contemptuous effrontery against the judicial authorities.
According to him, Ogba has continued to parade himself as the PDP governorship candidate for Ebonyi State, advertising his Certificate of Return which the Court had nullified.
“Then on the 23rd of June, two days after Ogba failed to secure Stay of Execution in the Court of Appeal, Enugu, he addressed a small gathering of his supporters and purportedly presented his so-called Deputy governorship candidate/running mate to nowhere in particular.
“Is this the case of a bad loser or a case of unbridled desperation, impunity, anarchism or impersonation or what?
“Was it not on the 21st of June, 2022, that Sen. Ogba approached the Court of Appeal to apply to be joined in the case at the Federal High Court Abakaliki, to enable him file his Appeal? So, if he was the PDP governorship candidate as he falsely/continuously claims, what then did he go to do at the Court of Appeal? If Ogba cannot obey a Court Order, then he has no business going to any other Court for that matter, including the Court of Appeal. He who goes to equity must go with clean hands,” Odii noted in the statement.
The statement further warned Ogba to desist from allegedly engaging in criminal contempt of Court, noting that the legal team of the campaign council was already taking note of his actions.
It added, “A person who promotes the flouting of Court Orders is an anarchist and an anti-democratic element. When a Court of Law gives a judgement on an issue and someone deliberately commissions himself to be misinterpreting the judgement in the eyes of the public, that individual is engaging in criminal contempt of court and should be getting ready to go to jail.
“We are sending a note of warning to Sen. Ogba that our lawyers will not hesitate to file Contempt Proceedings against him if these calculated acts of brigandage are not halted forthwith.”
