{"id":12492,"date":"2016-11-26T21:36:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T21:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12492"},"modified":"2016-11-26T21:36:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T21:36:41","slug":"prof-bodje-others-seek-leave-of-court-to-halt-upu-elections-ask-court-to-bar-omene-from-contesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12492","title":{"rendered":"PROF. BODJE, OTHERS SEEK LEAVE OF COURT TO HALT UPU ELECTIONS  \u2026ASK COURT TO BAR OMENE FROM CONTESTING"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11684&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">By Tega Evwrirhe<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One week to the 2016 Annual Congress of the Urhobo nation, President General of Agbarha-Otor Kingdom and aspirant to the office of President General of the Urhobo Progress Union, Prof. Sam Ibodje and six other prominent Urhobo leaders have approached the High Court of Justice, Warri seeking the leave of the court to entertain a motion to stop the 2016 Annual Congress and Elections into the National Executive Council of the Urhobo Progress Union.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The main ground for which the claimants, including Chief Ese Gam Owe, Dr Peter Obakponovwe, Osiobe Okotie, Hon. Solomon Edoja, Kenneth Iwhewhe and Chief Johnson Akporuarho approached the court are complaints against the leadership of Chief Joe Omene who is standing for re-election, the constitution of the Electoral Committee and the inauguration of the new branches of the Urhobo Progress Union by the Omene-led Exco, which the claimants believe violate the constitution of the Urhobo Progress Union and so should be barred from standing for election at any other date that may be scheduled for the polls in the future.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The matter which was filed at the Warri High Court on Thursday November 24, 2016 by Chief Victor Otomiewo, who himself was an aspirant to the office of President General, seeks a declaration that the Election and Screening Committee set up by Omene is illegal. The respondents include Chief Engr Joe Omene, President General of UPU, General E.O Obada, Chairman of the Electoral Committee and Chief Bobor, Secretary of the electoral Committee.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2018\u2019It is elementary that no man can be a judge in his own cause. It is contrary to natural justice, equity and good conscience for somebody or a group of persons who are participating in an election to constitute themselves into screening Committee for the purpose of that election. It affronts common sense and the doctrine of fair hearing\u2019\u2019, Chief Otomiewo had contested in a letter to the National Executive Council of the UPU.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He is therefore, on behalf of the claimants praying the court to declare that \u2018\u2019the 1st respondent, having been seriously indicted by members of his National Executive Committee between the period of 2014 and 2015\u2026is not fit and proper person to preside over the affairs of the Urhobo Progress Union in any capacity and cannot therefore present himself for nomination and\/or election for any national office of the Union.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2018\u2019A declaration that any list of Delegate from the 24 Kingdoms which is not endorsed by the Traditional Ruler and the President General of the Kingdoms in accordance with the Urhobo progress Union Constitution is not valid and\/or legal for the purpose of the December 2016 Election\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The case would be heard on <span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_900007350\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Tuesday November 29, 2016<\/span><\/span> and the defendants are to appear in person or by representation on the said date.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11684&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p><code><a href=\"http:\/\/market.jumia.com.ng\/men-shoes\/?utm_source=pap&amp;utm_medium=aff&amp;utm_campaign=0bed9dec&amp;a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=0bed9dec\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" title=\"\" src=\"\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/accounts\/default1\/a72f75b38\/0bed9dec.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"592\" height=\"254\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/kaymu.postaffiliatepro.com\/scripts\/a72f75i38?a_aid=Omafume&amp;a_bid=0bed9dec\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tega Evwrirhe One week to the 2016 Annual Congress of the Urhobo nation, President General of Agbarha-Otor Kingdom and aspirant to the office of President General of the Urhobo Progress Union, Prof. Sam Ibodje and six other prominent Urhobo leaders have approached the High Court of Justice, Warri seeking the leave of the court [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[1806,3321,3320,1034],"class_list":["post-12492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-chief-joe-omene","tag-chief-victor-otomiewo","tag-prof-sam-ibodje","tag-upu"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3fu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12493,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12492\/revisions\/12493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}