Former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Charles Soludo has not given up on his quest to be the next governor of Anambra State ahead of the November 6 election. This, despite his name being absent from the list of eligible candidates released by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday.
Soludo’s travails may not be unconnected with the controversy trailing his nomination as the flagbearer of APGA, which resulted into a lawsuit filed before the Abuja division of the Federal High Court.
In the originating summons, a chieftain of the party, Okoye Nwabuogo, is seeking an order of court setting aside the election and nomination of Soludo as the party’s candidate for the November election.
The suit dated July 6, 2021, and filed the same day by counsel to the plaintiff, Okoro Nkemakolam, is further seeking an order restraining Soludo from parading himself as the validly or duly elected candidate of the party for the said election.
Listed as defendants in the pre-election suit, are APGA, Prof Charles Soludo and INEC.
While urging the court to invalidate and set aside the entire primary election of the party held on June 23, the plaintiff is equally seeking an order of injunction restraining INEC, listed as 3rd defendant, from accepting the name of or recognising Prof Soludo (the 2nd Defendant), as the candidate of APGA (the 1st defendant), for the Anambra State gubernatorial election scheduled to hold on November 6, 2021.
But in a press statement made available to THISDAY in Awka by Soludo Campaign Organisation and signed by Soludo’s media aide, Joe Anatune, he urged his supporters not to despair over the exclusion of his name on the INEC list, urging them to have faith.
Part of the statement read: “Our millions of supporters in Anambra State and elsewhere in the world are advised not to be dispirited by the publication. Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo will participate in the governorship election as the APGA candidate.
“His nomination was strictly in line with the Electoral Law and INEC guidelines. INEC observed the APGA Congress on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, where he was nominated after winning 93.4 per cent of the valid votes cast in a free, fair and transparent manner which was broadcast live on national television networks as part of deepening the democratic process in Nigeria.
“Our team of dedicated and competent legal experts has studied the judgment and confident of overturning it effortlessly. The party is at liberty to nominate the rightful candidate so long as due process is followed. Soludo’s nomination followed due process religiously.”
Soludo said, “Millions of Ndi Anambra are understandably shocked that there are still desperate politicians in the state who want to re-enact the years, which the locusts consumed. They are determined to go to any and every length to acquire power for its own sake.
“We thought that the state had passed the stage where some of its politicians were moving from one end of the country to the other in the dead of the night in search of judicial orders to impose themselves on the people as their rulers, not leaders.”
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