An Owerri High Court has thrown out a lawsuit seeking to nullify the candidacy of Chukwuma Umeoji as the flagbearer of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the upcoming 2021 Anambra governorship election.
The Victor Oye-led faction of APGA had approached the court to declared its candidate, former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo as the authentic candidate of the party.
However, the court in its ruling dismissed Oye’s plea, while giving the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the mandate to recognize Umeoji as the candidate of the APGA in the 2021 governorship election.
Delivering the judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Victoria C. Isiguzo insisted that its earlier judgment which declared Jude Okeke as APGA National Chairman remains valid.
Isiguzo declared that INEC cannot evade its duty to comply with the orders of the court declaring Umeoji candidate and, therefore, has a legal obligation to continue to carry out, obey and comply with the extant, valid and subsisting judgment of this Court delivered on July 28, 2021, which declared Umeoji candidate and ordered INEC to continue to recognize him and Jude Okeke pending the determination of the appeal filed by Victor Oye at Appeal Court Owerri.
“That leave is hereby granted to the Applicant to Appeal as an interested party against the judgment/Orders of this Honourable Court (Coram, B.C. Iheka, J.) delivered on the 28th July 2021 in Suit No HOW/543/2021; Chike Dike V. INEC & 2 ors to the Court of Appeal.
“Prayer 2 for stay of execution of the judgment delivered on the 28th July 2021 is hereby refused. The Judgment of this court in suit No HOW/543/2021 is still subsisting and binding,” part of the ruling reads.
“The Judgment being a final judgment remains valid, subsisting, until set aside by an appellate court,” the presiding judge ruled.
The authentic candidate of APGA in the upcoming Anambra governorship election scheduled to on November 6 has been generating lots of twists and turns as there have been conflicting court rulings.
A Federal High Court, in Akwa, Anambra State had declared Soludo as the authentic torchbearer of the APGA in the November 6 Governorship election.
Recall that The New Diplomat had reported that the INEC failed to recognise former Governor of CBN, as the flagbearer of APGA in its list of candidates for the Anambra governorship election scheduled to hold on November 6.
Two APGA factions conducted parallel governorship primary elections, producing separate candidates.
While the Victor Oye-led faction primary election produced Soludo, the Jude Okeke-led faction primaries produced Umeoji.
