Annulment of Andy Uba’s candidacy : Jeering APGA hails court judgment

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Boos and jeers have greeted a court judgment declaring the emergence of Dr Andy Uba as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 6 Anambra State Governorship poll as illegal.

Persecondnews.com reports that a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday nullified the party’s governorship primary in the state conducted by Ogun Governor Dapo Abiodun.

Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled that Uba was never a candidate in the election having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election.

 Ekwo held that bthe plaintiff, George Moghalu, succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election from which Uba claimed to have emerged as the party’s candidate.

The court also ordered INEC to delete Uba from its record as a candidate in the election and ordered the APC to refund to Moghalu, the sum of N22.5m which is the amount he paid for expression of interest and nomination forms since the party failed to conduct a valid primary.

Uba had reportedly collected 230,000 votes at the direct primary which has now been annulled.

He, however, performed abysmally in the November election, getting only 43,000 votes as he was trounced by APGA’s Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. 

Soludo, 61, a former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, won 19 out of the 21 local government areas in the election.

He polled 112,229 votes to beat Valentine Ozigbo of the People’s Democratic Party, who garnered 53,807 votes, and Uba 43,285 votes.

Commenting on the judgment, APGA National Chairman, Chief Victor Oye, lauded the court’s decision, saying the judiciary had showed “courage in the face of adversity and intimidation by APC members.

According to him, Uba made his “worst mistake” by failing to accept that APGA’s Chukwuma Soludo won the November 6 Anambra State Governorship Election, and threatened to challenge the electoral process.

“The worst mistake Andy Uba made was not to have accepted defeat after the November 6, 2021 election adjudged by the whole world as free, fair and credible.

 “It was the right decision to reach by the court in the face of the absurdities that occurred during the APC governorship primary in Anambra State.

“So, we are glad that the Nigerian judiciary has continued to show courage and fairness in the face of adversity,” he commented.