Anthony Iwuoma
An Anambra High Court has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to accept Ugochukwu Uba as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the November 6, governorship election in the state.
The order is contrary to an earlier one by the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ordered the INEC to publish the name of Valentine Ozigbo as the candidate of the PDP for the same governorship election.
However, ruling on the matter brought before the court by Uba against INEC, PDP, and Valentine Ozigbo, as defendants, presiding judge, Obiora Nwabunike, gave the order to INEC to recognise Uba as the PDP candidate.
He also awarded N10 million damages agaibst the defendants as cost of litigation.
Uba had instituted the case (suit No. A/230/2021), urging the court to determine if the primaries conducted by the PDP national executive at the Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Centre on June 26 conformed with the law.
He also sought the court to determine whether a high court order in Abuja on a suit by one Samuel Anyakorah against PDP, bordering on the validity of the process that produced the party’s factional chairman (in Anambra), Ndubuisi Nwobu, had been set aside or stayed.
Uba also prayed the court to determine if the process of the primaries that 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.
Nwabunike held that the court order, restraining the PDP from conducting the primary was neither stayed nor set aside.
The judge added that neither the PDP constitution nor its national executive could be above a court order and that the party had not successfully vacated the extant orders before conducting the primaries.
He averred that the party was wrong in not vacating all legal hurdles before the primaries, hence the process was against the law.
According to Nwabunike, an order of court remains subsisting unless and until it is upturned or set aside. The court, therefore, resolved that the primaries that produced Uba at the Paul University’s complex on June 26, was lawful and in accordance with electoral guidelines.
