The Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, Imo State, has sacked Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Imo North bye-election.
The judgment, which was delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, came barely 24 hours to the bye-election, which holds on Saturday, December 5, in the 64 wards across the six Local Government Areas.
The Justice, who delivered the judgment in a tension-soaked courtroom, declared Frank Ibezim as the authentic candidate of the APC ahead of the election.
He faulted the November 6 judgment of the Federal High Court which sacked Ibezim and announced Araraume, who represented the district between 1999 and 2007 as the rightful winner of APC primary election.
The justice ordered INEC to immediately enlist Ibezim’s name as the candidate of the party for the bye-election.
He said that the revalidation of the candidacy of Ibezim was in tandem with the electoral act, having won the APC primary school in September.
Earlier on Friday, a Federal High Court in Abuja had disqualified Chukwuma Francis Ibezim as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Imo North Senatorial by-election.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment, disqualified Ibezim from contesting the election on the grounds that he made false statements/declarations in the affidavit and documents he submitted to the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wherein he presented falsified and uncertified photocopies of West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate.
Justice Ekwo found that the WASC certificate he submitted ” bears two different and irreconcilable names – Ibezim Chukwuma Frank and Ibezim Francis Chukwuma.
The judge ordered INEC to remove his name from the list of candidates for the by-election.
The judgement was on a suit marked:FHC/ABJ/CS/1229/2020 filed by Asomugha Tony Elebeke, with Ibezim, APC and INEC as defendants.
Araraume 
Ibezim