THE Supreme Court has confirmed Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the forthcoming Anambra elections.
This was announced on Thursday after a five-man panel of justices led by Mary Odili reached a unanimous decision to uphold the rulings of a Kano State Court of Appeal.
The appeal court had upheld the primary election that produced Soludo as APGA candidate, dismissing a judgement that recognised Chukwuma Umeoji as candidate of the party by a separate faction.
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But the Supreme Court has now recognised Soludo as APGA candidate and Victor Oye as chairman of the party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially excluded Soludo from the list of candidates cleared for the Anambra elections to be held on November 6.
The INEC had cited conflicting court orders as the reason for his exclusion
Prior to the primary elections, APGA had been faced with challenges bordering on leadership of the party.
The party had been divided into two factions, one of which was led by Victor Oye, and the other by Jude Okeke.
The primaries conducted by Oye had produced Soludo while the Okeke-led faction presented Chukwuma Micheal Umeoji as the party’s candidate.
A series of lawsuits had followed which resulted in conflicting judgments on the authentic candidate for the party.
However, INEC, last week, listed Soludo as APGA candidate for Anambra gubernatorial election on the basis of the Kano appeal court judgement.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.