The legal battle between Hon. Joseph Egene against Hon. Godwin Meliga, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the party’s primaries for House of Assembly seat for Okura Constituency has been amicably resolved out of court.
Recall that Hon. Joseph Egene had through his lawyer, Solomon O. Akobe, Esq., filed a suit in the High Court of Kogi State challenging the primary election conducted by PDP for House of Assembly seat for Okura Constituency.
The claimant had prayed the court to void the said primaries and to order that a fresh primary election be conducted between him and Hon. Meliga.
It was gathered by our correspondent that while the case was pending in court, some respected members of the party including the former Governor of the State, Captain Idris Wada, applied alternative dispute resolution by prevailing on the parties involved to shift grounds for the purpose of reaching an amicable settlement.
The said intervention yielded positive results one of which culminated into the decision by Hon. Joseph Egene to withdraw the suit from court.
At the resumed hearing in court on the 28th day of September, 2022, Hon. Egene’s Lawyer, S.O. Akobe, Esq. informed the court that he had filed a notice of withdrawal of suit which coveys his client’s instruction to withdraw the suit in view of the amicable settlement reached by the parties.
Counsel to Meliga, Arome Odoma, Esq., who held the brief of J.J. Usman, SAN, as well as the brief for PDP’s lawyer, confirmed the settlement.
The court upon this development, struck out the suit.
Speaking to our correspondent shortly after the court session, counsel to Hon. Joseph Egene, S.O. Akobe, Esq. stated that the withdrawal of the suit based on out-of-court settlement is very commendable one as it fosters internal party strength and cohesion.
On his part, Arome Odoma, Esq. also commended the parties in the case for exhibiting uncommon maturity in resolving their differences out of court.
Attempts to reach Hon. Joseph Egene and Hon. Godwin Meliga on phone was not successful as at the time of filing this report.
