INEC obeys court order, lists Soludo as APGA candidate for Anambra guber

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published a revised list of candidates for the Anambra governorship election.

In the list released on Thursday, the commission replaced Michael Umeoji with Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

INEC, however, still excluded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the list of cleared candidates for the poll.

In the list published on July 16, INEC had excluded the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while Michael Umeoji was listed as the candidate for APGA.

But in a ruling on July 19, a federal high court in Awka, the Anambra capital, affirmed Soludo as the candidate of APGA.

Similarly, on August 10, a court of appeal sitting in Kano had affirmed Victor Oye as APGA chairman — Soludo was elected governorship candidate of the party during a primary organised by the Oye-led faction.

Speaking on the development, Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter education, had said the commission would comply with “valid court orders”.

In a statement on Thursday, Okoye said the commission met and deliberated on a number of issues, including the nomination of candidates for the Anambra governorship election.

According to him, the revised list of candidates is the result of a court order received by the commission on APGA, as well as substitution of candidates’ names by various political parties.

“The commission was served with the judgement of the Court of Appeal (Kano Division) which set aside the judgement of the High Court of Jigawa State on the leadership of APGA and the nomination of its candidates for the Anambra governorship election,” the statement reads.

Okoye added that the final list of candidates will be published on October 7, 2021.