Chief Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on Tuesday testified before the Anambra election petitions tribunal in the case between Dr Chike Obidigbo and the party.
At the tribunal in Awka yesterday, Umeh identified and tendered the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Enugu, which granted a stay to the decision of an Awka High Court judgment that gave an order of status quo.
Other documents tendered were the Court of Appeal judgment which nullified the April 8, 2013 convention that produced Maxi Okwu as the party chairman, the report of APGA screening panel which disqualified Obidigbo and INEC report on APGA primaries.
The Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ishaq Bello, admitted all the documents as evidence as they were all pleaded and listed in the deposition.
Speaking after the sitting, Umeh said he had to tender the documents to show that based on the judgment of the Court of Appeal, he remained the authentic national chairman of APGA.
“The tribunal needed to be aware that the claims to the chairmanship of APGA by Maxi Okwu and the purported nomination of Obidigbo as APGA candidate in the 2013 election in Anambra was a fraudulent one not supported by the law.
“A lower court is bound by the decisions of the superior court,” he said.
Also reacting, the counsel to Obidigbo, Mr Oba Mmaduabuchi (SAN), said he had opposed the admissibility of the document because of the process leading to it and that they did not plead to it as part of the evidence they would rely upon.
Mmaduabuchi said the documents did not really touch the case, and “we will answer to those documents one by one to show their irrelevance”.
The hearing continues on April 30. (NAN)
