Supreme Court affirms Soludo as APGA candidate for Anambra guber poll

The Supreme Court on Thursday declared Chukwuma Charles Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 6th Anambra Gubernatorial election.

The Apex court also declared Chief Victor Oye as the National Chairman of the party.

The judgment was delivered by a five-man panel of justices and read by Justice Mary Peter Odili.

In a unanimous decision, the apex court upheld the judgement of the Kano State Court of Appeal, which validated the primary election that produced Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as the party’s candidate.

According to the Court, the appellate court was right when it set aside the judgement of a Jigawa State High Court that recognised a parallel primary election that was conducted by the Jude Okeke-led faction of APGA.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Soludo emerged from the primary election that was organised by the Victor Oye-led faction of the party.

The ruling on Thursday ends the long-running battle over the leadership of the party and candidature for the Anambra gubernatorial poll.

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In July, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had removed Soludo’s name from the list of candidates for the election, enlisting Chukwuma Umeoji as the party’s flag bearer.

Following the development, the electoral body explained that its decision was based on conflicting court orders, a move Soludo described as surprising.

However, a month later, INEC made a u-turn and named Soludo as APGA’s candidate for the Anambra election.

Again, the commission said the development was in line with court judgements on the matter.

Specifically, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said, “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.”

Following the development, Soludo was given the party’s flag as its authentic candidate and has since launched his campaign.

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