Obiora Nwabunike, judge of an Anambra state high court, has
declared Ugochukwu Uba as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the
November 6 governorship election.
This is coming a few hours after Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, judge
of a federal high court judge in Awka, ordered the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of Valentine Ozigbo as
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the same election.
INEC had excluded the PDP from the list of cleared
candidates, which was released on July 16.
The electoral body said its decision not to list the name of
any PDP candidate was in recognition of court orders served in relation to the
primary election of the party.
Ozigbo and Uba had emerged as the PDP’s governorship
candidates from parallel primary elections.
Ozigbo subsequently filed an ex parte application on July
14, asking the court to recognise him as the authentic governorship candidate
of the party.
The presiding judge refused to grant Ozigbo’s prayer, but
instead issued an order of accelerated hearing of the suit.
On the other hand, Uba had approached the court in suit
number A/230/2021 to determine if the primary election conducted by the
national executive of the PDP at the Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Centre
on June 26 was done according to the law.
He asked the court to determine whether an Abuja high court
order, on a suit by one Samuel Anyakorah against PDP, bordering on validity of the process that
produced Ndubuisi Nwobu, the party’s factional state chairman, had been set
aside or stayed.
He also prayed the court to determine if the process of the
primary, which produced Ozigbo through ‘super delegates’, was in line with the
provisions of the electoral act, which states that primary elections would be
done through delegates’ congress.
In his ruling, Nwabunike said the court order, which
restrained PDP from conducting the primary election, had neither been stayed
nor set aside.
He said that PDP erred by not clearing every legal huddle
before the primary election, hence the process was in defiance of the law.
The court, therefore, resolved that the primary, which
produced Uba at the Paul University’s complex on June 26 was lawful and in
accordance with the electoral guidelines.
The judge also awarded N10 million in Uba’s favour as cost
of litigation.
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