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A federal high court judge in Abuja,
Grace Olotu, yesterday disqualified herself from presiding over the
suit challenging the nomination of Enugu State governor Sullivan Chime
as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for last month’s
governorship election. One of Mr Chime’s opponents at the primaries,
Alexander Chukwuemeka Obiechina, had approached the court wanting to
know which of the two parallel congresses of the Enugu PDP governorship
primaries is the authentic one.

But Mrs Olotu, who
started hearing on the case last week, yesterday transferred the suit
to another judge following allegations of bias against her by Mr
Chime’s counsel. When the matter was raised yesterday, Justina Ohafia,
counsel to Mr Chime, told the court that the governor petitioned the
chief judge and the National Judicial Council about what transpired at
the last hearing and urged the judge to disqualify herself from hearing
the case.

The last hearing
started at about 9.15am and lasted until 9.06pm before its conclusion
was adjourned until May 3 for judgement. The judgement was later
shifted to yesterday.

Counsel to the
plaintiff, Oba Maduabuchi, prayed the court to obey its earlier order
of April 21, which fixed the hearing for yesterday, and hear the matter
along with the application for disqualification.

In her ruling, Mrs
Olotu vacated her earlier order and transferred the matter to Court 3,
presided over by Adamu Bello. The court had, in last week’s marathon
session, consolidated the seven applications filed by Mrs Ohafia, all
of which were lost to the plaintiff’s counsel, Mr Maduabuchi.

Mr Chime’s counsel
told journalists after the session that the reasons for their petition
are clear and were not for public discussion. She said, however, that
from the proceedings of April 21, it was clear the court would be
biased on the matter. Mr Obiechina approached the court seeking
clarification about the two parallel congresses for the PDP
governorship primaries. He has said he wants to know which is the
authentic one.

Chime won first round

A different high
court, presided over by Abdu Kafarati, had ruled that Mr Chime was the
rightful candidate of the PDP in Enugu for the election in an earlier
suit brought by another set of complainants.

Another of Mr
Chime’s opponents in the primaries, Anayo Onwuegbu, and 38 others had
gone to court to stop the PDP national secretariat and the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising the PDP candidate
list for Enugu, which contained the names of Mr Chime, the deputy
president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, and other candidates elected
at the primaries conducted by the Vita Abba-led state executive of the
party.

Mr Onwuegbu and
others claimed they were the rightful candidates of the PDP in Enugu
State, having been elected during the primaries in accordance with the
directives of the party.

But Mr Kafarati vacated an earlier
order restraining INEC from giving recognition to Mr Chime as the
gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Enugu State. He also upheld the
primary election that produced Chime, who has since won the state
governorship election and is set for another four years in office.</