A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Abuja has thrown out a criminal summons suit filed by Chinasa Nwaneri, an aide to Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, against the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Ikenga Ugochinyere, for lacking in merit.
In the summons, Nwaneri had alleged that Ugochinyere was involved in fraud perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in voter registration in 18 states including Imo.
The case had earlier been filed before a Federal High Court in the FCT where Justice M. A Hassan suspended further proceedings on the matter pending the hearing of the application for judicial review filed by Ugochinyere.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, Magistrate Umah Isa Dodo, who relied on the orders of the High Court, agreed that the impact of the order of the High Court was that there should be a stay proceedings.
He went further to also raise jurisdiction issues and resolved that his court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Ugochinyere’s long running battle with the Imo State government began when he raised an alarm and revealed an alleged massive voter register manipulation now popularly called the “Omuma Magic”.
Two weeks ago, the CUPP spokesman narrowly escaped death when gunmen invaded his country home and killed four people including his uncle.
Ugochinyere has also cried out on several occasions over alleged threats to his life by Nwaneri and other agents of the government.