Why Court Nullified APC’s Primary That Produced Andy Uba As Soludo’s Rival

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday granted an order nullifying the primary election that produced Andy Uba as the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra state won by the candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof Charles Soludo.

The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, ruled that the primary election that produced Uba was illegal.

This was sequel to a suit application filed by George Moghalu, who was an aspirant in the gubernatorial election under the platform of the APC. Moghalu had prayed the court to delist Uba from the list of gubernatorial candidates in the November 6 election on the grounds that APC failed to conduct a valid primary election.

Following the conclusion of court hearing, Justice Ekwo held that Moghalu succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election.

In his judgment, Justice Ekwo held that Uba was never a candidate in the election having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election.

The presiding judge also granted an ordered compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete Uba from its record as a candidate in the election.

In addition, Ekwo ordered the APC to refund to Moghalu the sum of N22.5m which is the amount he paid for expression of interest and nomination forms since the party failed to conduct a valid primary.

Recall that the primary election held by APC on June 26, ahead of the gubernatorial election has been subject of controversies. Many party members had claimed that election did not hold in many areas of Anambra. Some had alleged that APC came up with fake figures in the election to declare Uba as its flagbearer.

It would be recalled Soludo, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) garnered a total of 112,229 votes to defeat his 17 other rivals in the Anambra guber election. While PDP’s valentine Ozigbo came second in the election, Uba came a distant third.