A Chieftain of Alliance People’s Movement (APM), Francis Unedo Adinor has filed three separate suits before the Federal High Court Abuja challenging the candidacy of the governorship candidates of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Charles Chukwuma Soludo and his running mate and others.
Adinor in one of the suits filed at the Court is challenging the Youth Progressives Congress (YPP) and it’s governorship candidate Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah as well as his running mate.
The plaintiff also challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governor ship candidate Senator Andy Ubah and and his running mate .
Adinor in the three seperate suits is seeking the disqualification of the governorship candidates of the three political parties from contesting the November 6, governorship election in Anambra state on the ground of an allege “false information” which he said the candidates supplied to the electoral body.
The suit was filed on September 3 by Egwuaba Reuben on behalf of Francis Ujedo Adinor, an Abuja resident and member of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM)-a party also seeking election in the state.
Reuben said the three candidates APGA, YPP and APC and their deputies should not be allowed to run for the state election because they allegedly submitted about two to three inconsistent names to relevant authorities in aid of their selection as candidates.
He is asking the court to disqualify them for providing inconsistent names in certain vital documents.
According to Reuben, the certificates and documents Soludo and his running mate presented to INEC bore the following different names without evidence of deed poll; (A.) Charles Chukwuma Soludo (B). Soludo Charles (C)Soludo Charles Chukwuma (D)Soludo Chukwuma Charles.
He also accused Ifeanyi Ubah of similarly providing names to INEC contrary to what obtains in the former’s school certificate and the latter’s Certificate of Returns.
He therefore sought, “A DECLARATION that by the combined interpretation of the provisions of sections 31(1)(5)(6) of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended 2015), the 1st Defendant(Soludo) INEC Form EC-9 (Affidavit in support of Personal Particulars of Persons seeking election to the office of Governor of Anambra State as candidate duly published by the 4th Defendant on the 19th August, 2021 contains false information and ought to be disqualified from contesting the aforesaid election scheduled to hold on the 6th November, 2021.”
He prayed that the court should restrain the 1st and 2nd defendants from parading or holding themselves out as the validly nominated candidates of their party.
The reliefs sought added that if the application is not determined before the November 6 election, “and any of the 1st & 2nd Defendants of the respective parties contests and win under their party platform”, there should be “an order setting aside the Certificate of Return issued by them and same to be issued to the candidate with the next highest number of valid votes scored in the election.”
As three of the applications were to be heard before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday, Reuben prayed the court to grant his motion- ex-parte so as to serve the candidates with the court processes by substituted means thereby compelling them to appear at next adjourned date with their response to the allegations.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu who presided over the matter, granted the applicant’s prayers for the respondents to be served with the processes.
The vacation judge, however noted that, “It will be impracticable to conclude these matters by next week, hence, these matters is sent back to the Registry for reassignment.”
Meanwhile, Reuben told our correspondent that the PDP candidate Valentine Ozigbo and his running mate have also been sued by him for alleged false information and conflicting names.
The suit against the PDP has not been assigned yet but ‘it has been filed,” he said.