By Emma Ogbuehi
A Federal High Court in Awka has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of Valentine Ozigbo as the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the November 6 Anambra State governorship election. The Court issued the order on Monday.
It would be recalled that a Federal High Court in Abuja had on Thursday July 15th restrained Nigeria’s electoral umpire, INEC, from publishing the name of Ozigbo as PDP candidate, in a suit which on Friday July 16th was withdrawn paving the way for a fresh order to INEC to publish the name of the PDP Candidate on its list of candidates for the election.
In compliance to the order, INEC, had on Friday, published the list and personal particulars of candidates and their running mates for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
In the list, the Commission skipped Ozigbo, and dropped Soludo of the. In place of Soludo, INEC named Chukwuma Michael Umeoji as the substantive candidate of APGA.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, explained that the Commission took the action in obedience to orders of court. He said: “The Commission also considered and took cognizance of the judgments/court orders served on it in relation to the primaries of the political parties and other processes leading to the election”.
With the latest orders from the court, Ozigbo is back in the race. Ozigbo emerged as the frontrunner for the party’s ticket after running a unique grassroots campaign for almost two years in the run-up to the primary election. His comprehensive consultations took him to the 21 local government areas of the state, all of which he visited at least 7 seven times.