By Hugo Odiogor

Succour came for Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Delta North senatorial candidate, Prince Ned Nwoko, when the Appeal Court, sitting in Abuja, ruled, at the weekend, that he was validly nominated as a candidate of the DPP to contest the April 9, 2011 election which was shifted by one week.

Justice Regina Obiageli Nwodo of the Appeal Court and two other judges, Justice Zinab Adamu Bulkachuwa and Justice Jim Bada, unanimously, dismissed the judgement of Justice Mustapha Bello of April 8, 2011, which ruled that Mr Jude Azekwoh, instead of Nwoko, was the candidate of the DPP, for Delta North senatorial district. Bello had upheld Azekwoh’s petition on the grounds that Nwoko did not participate in the primaries of DPP on January 2011 and could not have emerged as the senatorial district candidate.

But the DPP at the state and national levels insisted that Nwoko was one of the candidates that contested the primaries and was duly returned as elected and qualified to represent the party as its candidate in the poll. But Justice Bello overruled the DPP and Nwoko 24 hours to the election thereby throwing Nwoko and his supporters in disarray.

The Appeal Court judges ruled that the lower court was wrong to have entertained the case in the first place on the grounds on wrong jurisdiction and failed to take into account the history of the case. The jurisdiction of the case was changed in such a manner that Nwoko was denied the opportunity of fair hearing which infringed on his fundamental human right.

Nwoko told Sunday Vanguard that the ambush judicial tactics was a deliberate plot by the PDP to destabilise him and his supporters on the eve of the election. He said that based on the Appeal Court judgement, he was no ready to challenge the judgement of the tribunal which declared Dr. Okowa as the winner of the Delta North Senatorial seat.