Anambra governorship election may have been over after the INEC declared the APGA candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo the winner of the election. However, the recent turn of events since the emergence of a suit seeking to disqualify the APGA candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on the ground that he submitted a false affidavit to the Independent National Electoral Commission has been very dramatic. There are insinuations across different quarters on who becomes the governor of Anambra state if Prof. Soludo is eventually disqualified....CONTINUE READING
But is the issue too weighty to warrant disqualification? The Guardian Newspaper reported that the Plaintiffs, Egwudike Chukwuebuka, and Adindu Valentine alleged that the APGA candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo indicated that he was contesting for Aguata Constituency 2 seat, whereas he was contesting for the position of a Governor. The question of whether this error can be a basis for disqualifying a candidate is left for the court to decide. It will be contempt to judge a case before the decision of the court. Meanwhile, the counsel to the APGA and Soludo, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) has said in the Guardian Newspaper report that such error cannot be used to disqualify a candidate from an election. This is proof that there was indeed an error in the affidavit. Unarguably, the fate of the APGA candidate, Prof. Soludo is hanging on this legal balance until the matter is decided on the 30th of November as scheduled. But while we await the decision of the court there’s a need to explore the chances of who becomes the governor if Prof. Soludo is disqualified.
There are speculations in some quarters that the PDP candidate, Mr Valentine Ozigbo may emerge as the governor of Anambra state if the court disqualifies Prof Soludo of APGA. This school of thought sighted the case of David Lyon in Bayelsa state who was disqualified alongside his deputy after the INEC had declared him the winner of the election. His disqualification paved way for the 1st runner up, Duoye Diri to emerge as the governor. First on what ground was the governor-elect and his deputy disqualified? The deputy to Diri submitted certificates with different names. This was seen as forgery and falsification of information by the court, which led to the disqualification of the APC candidate.
But we need to also recall that in 2015, Abubakar Audu, the APC candidate in the governorship election of Kogi state died just as the election was being concluded. It was ruled that the votes belong to APC and not the candidate, and as a result, Yahaya Belo was brought in as a replacement for Audu. Note that in this scenario, the deputy to Audu, James Faleke was denied the governorship office because the APC candidate, Audu Abubakar had not been declared the winner before his death.
Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, Deputy to Soludo
In my opinion, if the candidate of APGA is eventually disqualified, his deputy, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim will automatically emerge as the governor of Anambra state. What may need to be done is for him to choose his deputy.
This opinion notwithstanding, the APGA and Soludo’s legal team has a responsibility to argue and convince the court to ignore the error or explore the second option of arguing to retain the votes for the party. The only problem is that there are too many conflicting judicial precedents that may haunt anyone at any time in Nigeria.
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