Anambra Central Rerun: INEC accepts Peter Obi as PDP candidate

‘Peter Obi is the candidate of PDP in the forthcoming Anambra Central Senatorial election. The court ruled and Sheriff has re-submitted his name and INEC has Accepted’. – Joe-Martins Uzodike

Fear has gripped the Victor Umeh camp as it is confirmed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has accepted the selection of former Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming Anambra Central senatorial re-run election.

The rerun, which should have taken place on March 5, 2016, was postponed indefinitely by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, following a court order obtained by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to include it in the re-run.

Since then, many interest groups, including former governors in the senate, have been mounting pressure on Obi to join the race and the former governor succumbed to the pressures.

INEC had earlier barred the PDP from participating in the election as it stated that the December 7, 2015 Court of Appeal judgment that nullified the March 28, 2015 election of the PDP’s candidate, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife also stopped the party.

However, sleepless nights have presently gripped APGA as recent disclosures scattered the plans of the candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, who had threatened to use all legal means to stop former governor Peter Obi of the state from participating in the rerun.

Meanwhile, Obi was nominated to the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party for the senatorial election, following the Federal High Court Abuja order last month.

The Federal High Court had ruled that PDP had every right to contest the re-run senatorial election in the state.

The court order, followed the petitions from the All Progressives Congress (APC), PDP, ADC, and others calling for the postponement of the election.

Former commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Joe Martins Uzodike, who was Governor Willie Obiano’s campaign Director General, described the nomination of Peter Obi as a welcome development.

“Peter Obi is the candidate of PDP in the forthcoming Anambra Central Senatorial election. The court ruled and Sheriff has re-submitted his name and INEC has Accepted”, Joe-Martins Uzodike said yesterday on Blaze FM radio interview.

But addressing reporters at the Tansian University, Umunya, Anambra State where he was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in Political Science, Umeh described the decision of the former governor to join the race as an illegality, arguing that the Supreme Court had in plethora of cases said a fresh election resulting from an annulled election was a rerun and only those who contested the annulled election would be qualified to participate in the rerun.

The former National Chairman of APGA described the Federal High Court’s judgment that ordered INEC to include PDP in the rerun as one ambush that would crash, insisting that the High Court had no powers under any law to delve into an area the Supreme Court had sufficiently covered the ground.

“Obi’s campaign posters that are all over the place for this rerun are efforts in futility. He won’t contest this election. Anambra is not the only place a rerun has been ordered by a court. So, all these things are illegality and cannot stand,”, Umeh said

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