Anambra PDP Primaries: Uba, Oduah to Know Fate July 8

Alex Enumah in Abuja

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has reserved July 8 for judgment in a suit challenging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election that produced Senators Andy Uba, Stella Oduah and others as candidates for the 2015 National Assembly elections.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja wednesday, fixed the date after listening to submissions of counsel in the matter.

Both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP had in the various argument urged the court to dismiss the suit challenging the validity of the primary election of PDP that produced Uba, Oduah and others as candidates for the 2015 National Assembly elections.

According to them, the legal action instituted by Senator Annie Okonkwo and 43 others is a gross abuse of the court processes, as the issues raised by the plaintiffs had already been resolved by the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs had in a suit filed before the court asked the court to invalidate the nomination of the defendants by the PDP in the 2015 National and state House of Assembly elections.

They also applied for an order of the court restraining INEC from accepting the nomination of Uba and his colleagues in the national and state assemblies on the ground that they were not nominated by the state executive committee of PDP led by Mr. Ejike Oguebegu.

They premised their argument on the grounds that since Oguebegu-led state PDP committee conducted primary election, nominated them and their names published by INEC, it was wrong in law for their names to be withdrawn from INEC’s list.

They maintained that any purported removal of their names from the INEC list violated provisions of the law and should be set aside while their names should be restored.

However, in the adoption of final addresses yesterday before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, INEC in its opposition to the suit claimed that the case of Okonkwo and other plaintiffs had been overtaken by a Supreme Court judgment delivered on January 29, 2016 by Justice John Iyang –Okoro.