Court reinstates Soludo as APGA candidate for Anambra

A federal high court sitting in Awka, the Anambra capital, has affirmed Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ahead of the governorship election in the state.

Soludo who belongs to the Victor Oye-led faction of APGA had secured 740 votes to defeat Ezenwankwo Christopher who polled 41 votes, while ThankGod Ibe had four votes, and Okolo Chibuzor got seven votes.

But in the list published on July 16, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) picked Michael Umeoji over Soludo as the standard-bearer for APGA.

INEC said it based its decision on a court orders.

Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter education, also told TheCable that Musa Ubale, judge of a high court in Jigawa state, had passed judgment in suit JDU/022/21, upholding the suspension of Victor Oye and affirming Jude Okeke as the party’s national chairman on June 30, 2021.

Okoye also cited another court order in suit number FCT/DW/CV/133/21 in which Bello Kawu, a judge at the federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Kubwa, on June 28, ordered INEC to monitor the primary election of the Jude Okeke faction and comply with the result.

Umeoji won the primaries in Okeke’s faction.

But delivering judgment on Monday, Chukwudi Okaa, presiding judge, said the other parties in the suit, comprising Jude Okeke, Edozie Njoku, and Chukwuma Umeoji, were “meddlesome interlopers”.

The judge, therefore, affirmed Oye as the national chairman of the party, and ordered INEC to recognise Soludo as the APGA governorship candidate for Anambra.