Anambra Guber: Abuja Resident Asks Court To Disqualify APGA, APC, YPP, PDP Candidates Over ‘False Information’

Ahead of the November 6 Anambra Governorship election, separate suits bordering on alleged false information have been instituted against Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Andy Uba, Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah, Valentine Ozigbo and their running mates.

The aforementioned are aspirants of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Progressive Congress (APC), Young Peoples Party (YPP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the said poll.

The candidates, their running mates, respective parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are the first to fourth defendant in the application.

The suit was filed on September 3 by Egwuaba Reuben on behalf of one Francis Ujedo Adinor, an Abuja resident and member of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM)-a party also seeking election in the state.

Reuben said the three candidates (APGA, YPP and APC) and their deputies cannot run for the state election because they allegedly submitted about two to three inconsistent names to relevant authorities before their selection as candidates.

He is asking the court to disqualify them for providing inconsistent names in certain vital documents.

According to Reuben, the certificates and documents Soludo and his running mate presented to INEC bore the following different names without evidence of deed poll; A. Charles Chukwuma Soludo B. Soludo Charles C. Soludo Charles Chukwuma D. Soludo Chukwuma Charles.

He also accused Andy and Ifeanyi of similarly providing names to INEC contrary to what obtains in the former’s school certificate and the latter’s Certificate of Return.

He therefore sought, “A DECLARATION that by the combined interpretation of the provisions of sections 31(1)(5)(6) of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended 2015), the 1st Defendant(Soludo) INEC Form EC-9 (Affidavit in support of Personal Particulars of Persons seeking election to the office of Governor of Anambra State as candidate duly published by the 4th Defendant on the 19th August, 2021 contains false information and ought to be disqualified from contesting the aforesaid election scheduled to hold on the 6th November, 2021.”

He stated that the court should restrain the 1st and 2nd defendants from parading or holding themselves out as the validly nominated candidates of their party.

In addition, the reliefs sought added that if the application is not determined before the November 6 election, “and any of the 1st & 2nd Defendants of the respective parties contests and win under their party platform”, there should be “an order setting aside the Certificate of Return issued by them and same to be issued to the candidate with the next highest number of valid votes scored in the election.”

As three of the applications were to be heard before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday, Reuben prayed the court to grant his motion- exparte so as to serve the candidates with the court processes by substituted means thereby compelling them to appear during proceedings to react to the allegations.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu who presided over the matter, granted the applicant’s prayers thereby ruling that the respective defendants be served with the processes.

Egwuatu, who is a vacation judge, however added that, “It will be impracticable to conclude this matter by next week, hence, this matter is sent back to the Registry for reassignment.”

Meanwhile, Reuben told our correspondent that the PDP candidate and his running mate have also been sued by him for alleged false information and conflicting names.

“That of the PDP has not been assigned yet but it has been filed,” he said.

THE WHISTLER reports that party candidates in the state have seen a wide range of court actions in view of the coming election.