Anambra gov’ship: Supreme Court affirms Soludo as APGA candidate

By John Chuks Azu, Abbas Jimoh (Abuja) & Titus Eleweke (Awka) 

The Supreme Court has affirmed the nomination of Professor Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Victor Oye as national chairman.

A five-member panel of justices on Thursday unanimously dismissed the appeal by a faction of the political party led by Jude Okeke and upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kano Division.

In the lead judgment by Justice Mary Odili, the panel held that the appeal was an abuse of court process and lacked merit and substance.

The apex court criticized the appellants for engaging in forum shopping and gross abuse of court process as the dispute over the APGA June 23 primary for the November 6 governorship election after the case travelled from Anambra to Imo and later Jigawa, where the court issued an order suspending Soludo and Oye.

The Court of Appeal, Kano Division had on August 11 overturned the decision of the high court, which recognised the Okeke faction and its candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji, on the grounds that the High Court of Jigawa lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

The apex court further declared that the election of officers of political parties was their internal affair.

Reacting, Oye said he would not witch-hunt anyone and pledged to be magnanimous in running the party’s affairs. He commended the judiciary for their doggedness in defending the cause of democracy against those whose activities are inimical to national development and ethos.

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it would use bimodal voter authentication for accreditation and voting in the Anambra State November governorship election.

Bimodal is a technology that will authentic the fingerprint and physical appearance of the voter in the register.