An
Abuja Magistrate Court yesterday struck out a criminal summons filed against
the spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties, Ikenga
Ugochinyere, by Chinasa Nwaneri, an aide to Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo
State.
The allegations contained in the summons
bordered on the revelation by Ugochinyere of an alleged fraud by the All
Progressives Congress in the voter register in 18 states, including Imo State.
A copy of the judgment, dated January 23, was
obtained by journalists on Wednesday.
Justice M.A. Hassan of the High Court of the
Federal Capital Territory had suspended further proceedings on the matter
pending the hearing of the application for judicial review filed by
Ugochinyere.
The judge granted leave to the applicant by way of an order
for certiorari, including an order of prohibition directed against the
respondents by themselves or acting jointly or through agents, prohibiting them
from conducting any hearing or further proceedings against the applicant in the
matter of Nze Chinasa Nwaneri v Ugochinyere Ikenga, case number WZ6/CR/30/2022,
or on any facts constituting the same subject matter as that case.
He
also granted an order of injunction restraining each of the respondents, by
themselves, jointly, or through agents, in respect of any matter whose subject
matter constitutes the same as the case.
Relying on the above orders of the FCT High
Court, Magistrate Umah Isa Dodo agreed that the impact of the order of the High
Court was that he should stay proceedings, went further to also raise jurisdiction
issues, and resolved that his court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to
entertain the matter.
The
Magistrate had earlier threatened to order the arrest of Ugochinyere if he did
not appear before him before he was served with the processes pending at the
High Court, which warranted the suspension of the trial.
Efforts by J. C. Nwosu, counsel to Nwaneri, to
persuade the magistrate court to proceed with the hearing of the case were
opposed by counsel to Ugochinyere. They argued that the lawful thing for the magistrate court to do was to
obey the pendency of the matter in the high court and stop its own hearing.
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