The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed Charles Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ahead of the forthcoming election in Anambra State.
A five-man panel led by Mary Odili also affirmed Victor Oye as the national chairman of the party.
The apex court’s judgement upheld the earlier verdict of the Kano State Division of the Court of Appeal, which validated the primary election that produced Mr Soludo as the party’s candidate ahead of the November 6, 2021 election.
The Court of Appeal had quashed a Jigawa State High Court judgement that recognised a parallel primary election that was conducted by the Jude Okeke-led faction of APGA.
Mr Soludo, a professor and former CBN governor, emerged the winner of the primary election organised on June 23 by the APGA faction loyal to Governor Willie Obiano. The faction is led by Mr Oye.
He got 740 votes to defeat five other aspirants, including Okwudili Ezenwanwko, who came a distant second in the primary election of the party with 41 votes.
However, another faction led by Jude Okeke rejected Mr Soludo’s emergence and subsequently organised a parallel primary on July 1.
Chukwuma Umeoji and Obiageli Orogbu emerged as the govrnorship and deputy governorship candidates of the party in the parallel primary election.
Citing court decisions, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in July, removed the names of Mr Soludo, and his running mate, Onyekachi Ibezim, from the list of various parties’ candidates cleared for the forthcoming election and replaced them with Chukwuma Umeoji and Obiageli Orogbu as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of APGA.
Thursday’s decision laid to rest the intra-party leadership crisis that also affected the party’s governorship primary election.
INEC had cleared 18 political parties for the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
Among the parties are All Progressives Congress (APC) with Andy Uba as its governorship candidate, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Valentine Ozigbo as its candidate, and the Young Progressives Party, with Ifeanyi Ubah as its candidate.
