Federal High Court sitting in Awka has reinstated Chukwuma Soludo as APGA governorship candidate.
Gatekeepers News reports that a federal high court sitting in Awka, the Anambra capital, has affirmed former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Chukwuma Soludo as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ahead of the state’s gubernatorial election.
Soludo who is under the Victor Oye-led faction of APGA earlier secured 740 votes to defeat Ezenwankwo Christopher who had 41 votes, while ThankGod Ibe polled four votes, and Okolo Chibuzor got seven.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the list published on July 16, picked Michael Umeoji over Soludo as the standard-bearer for APGA.
INEC stated that this was based on court orders.
INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, earlier disclosed that a judge of a high court in Jigawa state, Musa Ubale on June 30, upheld the suspension of Victor Oye and affirmed Jude Okeke as the party’s national chairman in suit JDU/022/21.
Okoye also cited another court order in suit number FCT/DW/CV/133/21 in which a judge at the federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Kubwa, Bello Kawu, on June 28, ordered INEC to monitor the primaries of the Jude Okeke faction and comply with the result.
Umeoji won the primaries in Okeke’s faction.
However, while delivering judgment on Monday, the presiding judge, Chukwudi Okaa described the other parties in the suit, comprising Jude Okeke, Edozie Njoku, and Chukwuma Umeoji, as “meddlesome interlopers”.
Okaa, therefore, affirmed Oye as the national chairman of the party and ordered INEC to recognise Soludo as the APGA governorship candidate for Anambra’s forthcoming election.
