The Court of Appeal on Wednesday in Abuja reaffirmed the suspension of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s candidacy to contest the February 6 Anambra governorship election on the platform of the PDP.

Valentine Ozigboh, Nkoli Imo and Ferdinand Okoye, all PDP governorship aspirants, on December 12 filed a joint injunction motion on notice seeking that their main appeal be heard on its merit.

They also sought the leave of the court to declare that the parties maintain the status quo.

Delivering her ruling on the application, Justice Mary Odili, represented by Justice Ayobode Lokolo-Sodipe said: "the motion is granted because it has merit.

“The court, having gone through the preliminary objections and the written addresses by the respondents, unanimously agrees that the positions were not strong enough to dismiss the application as prayed for.

“The objections of both counsel to Soludo and PDP were frivolous and lack merit.

"We still reiterate our decision of Dec. 11 that the Independent National Electoral Commission should not recognize Soludo’s candidacy pending the determination of the main appeal.''

The appellants had challenged the alleged unlawful nomination of Soludo as PDP candidate in the 2010 Anambra governorship election. 

They alleged that the leadership of PDP violated both the 2006 Electoral Law and the party’s constitution to endorse the former Central Bank Governor as its candidate.
No date was fixed for the hearing of the main appeal.

Soludo’s appeal against the December 11 decision of the Court of Appeal is slated for Thursday at the Supreme Court in Abuja.

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus