By CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI — Imo State governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has dragged the embattled Chairman of South East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, to the Supreme Court.

Ilomuanya, who was earlier sacked by Okorocha on assumption of office, was, however, reinstated as chairman of Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers vide the judgment delivered July 5, 2013, by the Court of Appeal in Owerri.

The governor, among other reliefs, is urging the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Appeal Court, which returned Ilomuanya to office.

Apart from the appeal, the state government also filed a motion on notice for an order staying execution of the Appeal Court judgment.

Government argued that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it held the counter-affidavit of the appellants, which they claimed was not strong enough to counter the content of the affidavit of the respondent.

Armed with this thought, government sensed miscarriage of justice, adding that the Appeal Court also erred when it held that the learned trial judge, suo moto, raised the issue of hear-say and made a case for the appellants.

Okorocha appealed to the apex court to set aside the Appeal Court judgment of July 5, 2013, and affirm the judgment delivered by Imo State Chief Judge, Justice Benjamin Njemanze, on February 24, 2012, which dismissed Ilomuanya’s suit as “unmeritorious.”

Vanguard recalls that months after the Appeal Court judgment, the appointee of the governor, Eze Sam Ohiri, and the state government largely ignored the court’s pronouncement.

While some lawyers frowned on the manner court judgment was being flouted by government, they, however, believed that since the matter had now shifted to the Supreme Court, Eze Ilomuanya might have to wait until the matter was finally decided.