Anambra senatorial poll: Court stops APC candidate

AF e d e r a l High Court in Abuja has dismissed an application by Sharon Ikeazor seeking to be recognized as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the re-run of the cancelled March 2015 Anambra Central Senatorial election.

Justice Anwuli Chikere on Tuesday, while ruling on Ikeazor’s application to substitute Senator Chris Ngige, who had withdrawn from the election, said the time for political parties to nominate candidates for elective positions had lapsed.

Ngige withdrew from the re-run of the March 28, 2015 senatorial election ordered by the appeal court, following his appointment as Labour and Employment Minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ikeazor’s move to replace Ngige was challenged by Uche Ekwunife, who defected to the APC after her victory at the poll on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was nullified by the Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal Division in Awka and upheld by the Court of Appeal in Enugu.

The Supreme Court on February 10 also dismissed Ekwunife’s appeal on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to entertain matters emanating from the conduct of National Assembly elections.

In the lead judgment of the five-member panel of justices, Justice Amina Augie upheld the position of the respondent in the suit, Chief Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who was Ekwenife’s challenger at the lower courts, that the Appeal Court is the terminal point on assembly election petitions.

No date has announced for legislative re-run. been the