The Supreme Court has declared Chukwuma Charles Soludo as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 6th Anambra Governorship election.
Also, the apex court declared Chief Victor Oye as the party’s National Chairman.
The judgment was made by a five-man panel of justices and read by Justice Mary Peter Odili.
In a unified decision, the Supreme Court upheld the judgement of the Kano State Court of Appeal, which approved the primary election that produced Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as the candidate of the party.
According to the apex court, the appellate court was within its right to set aside the judgement of a Jigawa State High Court that gave recognition to a parallel primary election that was carried out by the Jude Okeke-led faction of APGA.
The ruling puts an end to the protracted battle over the party’s leadership and candidature for the Anambra governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) removed Soludo’s name from the list of candidates for the election in July and enlisted Chukwuma Umeoji as the party’s flag bearer.
After removing Soludo’s name, INEC explained that the decision was made based on conflicting court orders.
INEC later made a u-turn and approved Soludo as APGA’s candidate for the Anambra election and said the development was in line with court judgements on the matter.
The National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, 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 declaration by Supreme Court, Soludo was handed the party’s flag as its authentic candidate and has since commenced his campaign.
