By Emma Ogbuehi
Smarting from the N10 million recently slammed on him by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja for abuse of process, Anambra Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Senator Ugochukwu Uba, suffered another setback on Thursday, September 9, 2021 when the appellate court dismissed the application for stay of execution filed by his Counsel Assam A. Assam, SAN. Uba has been challenging the nomination of Valentine Ozigbo as the authentic candidate of the PDP in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra.
Recall that the Court of Appeal had on September 3, 2021 entered judgment in favour of Ozigbo, wherein it set aside the Judgment of the High Court of Anambra State delivered by Justice O.A. Nwabunike on July 19, 2021, and emphatically reaffirmed Ozigbo as the duly nominated candidate of the PDP.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the Court, Senator Uba through his lead Counsel, Assam, filed applications seeking a stay of the execution of the Court’s judgment on the matter.
The two applications with Motion Nos: CA/AW/272M/2021 and CA/AW/273M/2021 came up on Thursday, September 9, 2021 for hearing. Senator Uba was represented by Assam, while Ozigbo was represented by Alex Ejesieme, SAN. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and PDP were represented by I.S. Mohammed and Ochai J. Otokpa.
The Court of Appeal after hearing the submissions of parties on the two applications for stay of execution, roundly dismissed them.
The Court’s dismissal of the two applications seeking to restrain Ozigbo, INEC and the PDP from enforcing its September 3 judgment effectively sustains both its decision and Ozigbo as the authentic candidate of the PDP for the November 6 Anambra governorship election.
In abiding with the decision of the Court, INEC has published Ozigbo as the PDP candidate for the election.
The matter having been dispensed with, now effectively places the burden and duty of compliance with the said judgement on Senator Ugochukwu Uba to pay the sum of N10 million as cost of litigation to Mr. Valentine Ozigbo as ordered by the Court.
Meanwhile on Thursday September 9, 2021, INEC complied with the said judgment by listing Mr. Valentine Ozigbo as the Governorship Candidate of the PDP and Mrs. Azuka Enemo as his running mate.
