Appeal Court rejects Uba’s claim as APC candidate in Anambra guber election

The Court of Appeal Abuja, has upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court, setting aside the candidacy of Senator Andy Uba as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the Nov 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra State.

In a unanimous Judgment delivered by Justice Danlami Zenchi, on Wednesday, the court dismissed the appeals brought by Uba and the APC against the judgment of the Federal High Court for lack of merit.

Justice Zenchi held that the panel considered all the issues raised by the appellants in the two appeals and resolved all the issues against them. The court agreed with the submissions of Chris Uche, counsel to George Moghalu, dismissed the appeals and affirmed the decision of Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, delivered on December 20, 2021.

Justice Ekwo had in his judgment held that Uba was never a candidate in the poll having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election by the APC.

Ekwo held that the plaintiff, Moghalu, succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election which Uba claimed to have won. Consequently, he ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete Uba’s name from its record as a candidate in the election.

READ: JUST IN: Court nullifies APC’s participation in Anambra governorship election

Justice Ekwo equally ordered the APC to refund to the plaintiff N22.5 million he paid for expression of interest and nomination forms, since the party failed to conduct a valid primary. Uba had emerged as the candidate as the APC’s candidate at the primary election held on June 26, 2021.

But in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/648/2021, Moghalu, an aspirant in the APC primary election, challenged the process and the outcome of the primary election.

Moghalu contended that the APC did not comply with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 and the APC’s regulations and guidelines in the conduct of its governorship primary in Anambra State.

RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that the November 6 election has since been won by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, who will be inaugurated in March.

In the suit, Moghalu urged the court to determine whether a political party that fails to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act (2010), the party’s constitution, and its guideline, can validly field a candidate for the election. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court that his client’s grouse was that the “so-called primary election”, which produced Mr Uba as APC’s candidate for the Anambra governorship poll, breached the Electoral Act and the APC guidelines for the conduct of the exercise.