Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District and candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State, Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, has pledged to conduct local government elections in the state, within six months, if elected on Novermber 6, 2021. Senator Ubah reiterated this commitment when the Igbo News Channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had an exclusive interview with him, in his office at the National Assembly. March next year, incumbent Governor Willie Obiano will be leaving office. But there was no indication that chairmen and councillors would be elected into Anambra’s 21 local government areas. Recall that since Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999, council polls have successfully been held in Anambra twice. The last on January 11, 2014, towards the twilight of former Governor Peter Obi’s administration and the first in December 1998. Other previous attempts to conduct council polls in the state on December 4, 2004, February 2005, November 2011, October 5, 2013, December 14, 2013 and December 21, 2013 were futile. Speaking on the urgent need to guarantee local government autonomy if elected governor come November 6, 2021 and inaugurated March 17, 2022, Ubah said, “I’m presenting myself to work for Ndigbo. The fact remains, there is no guber candidate who had in the past or present invested even 20 per cent of what I’ve invested in Alaigbo. “I’ve verifiable physical and social collaterals to show for all my investments in Alaigbo. No other guber candidate has positively touched Ndigbo like Ifeanyi Ubah. For instance, as I speak, the Anambra Progressives that I convened has raised over N540million to build about three hospitals to cater for the healthcare of our people in Anambra State. “I’m a selfless person. But my traducers who are bent on throwing mudslings at me are angered by the fact that of all the governorship candidates in Anambra, I’m the only one with no pre-election issues and litigations. In the forthcoming guber polls, we must all realise that it is God Almighty that crowns a king. Needless the frivolious blackmails. Let’s have an issue-based campaign based on verifiable evidences of what you have done for Anambra people, and what you intend to do if voted in. “In the November 6 governorship election, the candidate that should be elected is the one that will conduct local government elections within six months. For long, our people at the grassroots have been suffering, whilst the funds meant for the growth and development of our local communities are frittered.” Assuring that he was that candidate, Ubah stated that “Anambra needs a governor who believes in local government autonomy. Anambra needs a governor who will promote and protect the interests of traders in Anambra State and South East in general, as such was important for the development of the state and South East at large since business is the major asset of the region.”

A faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Anambra State has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to follow due process by standing by the list of candidates it released last week. The Chief Jude Okeke’s faction’s appeal to the electoral umpire was in reaction to Monday’s judgement of Anambra High Court which upturned the earlier judgement by Jigawa High Court recognising Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji,as the party’s governorship candidate. Speaking in Abuja through its national publicity secretary, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, the group alleged that some people were determined to desecrate the sanctity of the nation’s judiciary with actions inimical to the development of democracy in the country. According to Chukwunyere, the latest judgement was wrong given that the Anambra High Court has same coordinate jurisdiction with Jigawa High Court which he said had earlier upheld the election of Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji as the party’s candidate in Anambra State.

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Professor Chukwuemeka Soludo, has reacted to the exclusion of his name from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) list, saying it came as a surprise to him. INEC had on July 16 excluded Soludo from the list it published recently for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, citing court cases as the reason for doing so. However, An Anambra High Court in Awka on Monday ordered INEC to restore Soludo as the APGA candidate in the poll that is barely four months from now. Speaking hours after the court verdict, the APGA candidate said he was consoled by the outpouring of support from the over 20 million Anambra indigenes both within and outside of the country. He also explained that he is hopeful of getting justice both at the Court of Appeal and possibly at the Supreme Court if the case lingers to the apex court. “When it came last week, I was a little bit surprised, not terribly so. I have been through this road before. When I ran in 2010, we had about 13 court cases in three months and thanks goodness, the Nigerian judiciary stood firm and came through in the end,” he said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today. “Surprising that INEC could take that seemingly surprising decision but not surprising because we see this all the time around the country. What happens today is a very important step in the whole process. “Of course, those other court judgements have been appealed appropriately. One is confident that the Court of Appeal and probably, if it ends in the Supreme Court will do the sound justice.”

Two Anambra State High Courts sitting in Awka, the state capital, have ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to enlist Senator Ugochukwu Uba and Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, as the governorship candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), respectively for the November 6 poll in the state. Crimefacts.news had earlier reported that INEC had excluded Uba and Soludo from the list it published recently for Anambra State governorship poll, citing court cases as the reason for doing so. But on Monday, court 5 of the High Court presided over by Justice Obiora Nwabunike in a matter brought before it by Senator Ugochukwu Uba against Mr Valentine Ozigbo, a factional governorship candidate of PDP and INEC said Uba’s faction of the party held its primary election in line with a subsisting live court judgement, stipulating the guidelines for the exercise. ‌ Nwabunike said submissions by Ozigbo’s lawyers that a primary election of a political party was an internal affair of the party were right, but not when there was a court judgement stipulating how the primary election should be conducted. He said,” It’s not for nothing that court judges are called my lords. When a court makes a pronouncement, it must be obeyed no matter how foolish or ugly anybody thinks it’s is. “The constitution is supreme, the court is the supremacy. A court can even annul a section of the constitution. That’s how powerful the court is. “So, it’s wrong for the PDP to go-ahead to conduct the primary election party at the Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre that produced Valentine Ozigbo, with what it called super delegates against a live judgement of a court without overturning the judgement. “That action cannot be vitiated or mitigated by the argument adduced by defence counsel that party primaries are internal affairs of political parties.” The court ordered Ozigbo, PDP to pay N10m to Uba as cost of litigation. Similarly, a high court presided over by Justice Chukwudi Okaa had ordered INEC to enlist Soludo as the candidate of APGA and drop Chukwudi Umeoji earlier published by the commission. Justice Okaa said Dr Victor Oye as the authentic National Chairman of APGA had the right to conduct the primary election of the party and produce/sponsor a candidate of the party in the poll and not the Jude Okeke faction of the party. In the case of Mr Valentine Ozigbo, the Federal High Court also sitting in Awka, has adjourned the Ozigbo case to 23rd September 2021 for further hearing. The case was adjourned by Justice Nkajira Hyeladzira Ajiya.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has hailed a court order directing the Independent National Commission (INEC) to restore its candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as the candidate of the party for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra state. National chairman of APGA, Dr. Victor Oye, who spoke with journalists in an interview in Abuja, said the judiciary has done well, especially by nipping in bud the activities of impostors. According to Oye, “I believe in the independence of the Judiciary and I believe that Judiciary in Nigeria has done very well despite a few disenchantments. “I don’t want to be drag into unnecessary controversy. I think what happened today in Awka shows the independence of the Judiciary and that it is the last hope of the common man. Imagine what would have happened if there are no Judiciary. They would have been chaos and anarchy.” He said no matter how imperfect the judiciary may be, it is indispensable in a democracy. He said, “I feel happy that the court in Awka has done justice to this matter by ordering the reinstatement of Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo as the Governorship candidate of APGA for the November 6 Anambra Governorship election. “INEC should immediately reinstate Prof. Soludo as the APGA’s candidate for Anambra Governorship election without delay. I have never had any doubt about the candidacy of Soludo because the Chukwuma Umeoji and his co-impostors have no place in law to claim anything in APGA. Did they conduct any genuine congress or primary? “I feel it was a gross injustice for INEC to have declared him candidate of APGA. This is evil and an invitation to chaos.” Oye said that the reason there was protest and chaos in Anambra State over INEC’s decision was because the leadership of APGA had appealed for calm. “I am repeating my call on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that those impostors that attempted to impersonate the leadership of APGA are punished. That is the only way to restore confidence in the management of the electoral system,” Oye said.