The candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Anambra
Central senatorial re-run election, Chief Victor Umeh, has threatened to use
legal means to stop former governor Peter Obi of the state from participating
in the rerun.
The rerun, which ought to 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.
The rerun, which ought to 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, some interest groups, including former governors in the
senate, have been mounting pressure on Obi to join the race and there were
indications that the former governor might have 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
March28, 2015 election of the PDP’s candidate, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife also stopped
the party.
Addressing reporters at the Tansian University, Umunya, Anambra State
weekend 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.
Umeh said: “ I didn’t come into politics to make money. I am into
politics to sanitize the system. Obi and his group will not contest this
election.
We won’t allow this perfidy of theirs. I have been in court all through
my political career and I will continue to do that, especially in this rerun.
“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.”
However, a former commissioner during the Peter Obi administration,
Chief Joe-Martins Uzodike, a lawyer, claimed what the Court of Appeal ordered
was a fresh election.
He said: “The Court of Appeal judgement was made in simple in English
language and it said ‘ go and conduct a fresh election within 90 days. What
this means is that everything will start all over again, and anybody who is
interested can participate.
That was what the Abuja Federal High Court affirmed when it ordered INEC
to include PDP in the rerun, and PDP has endorsed Obi for the Anambra Central
rerun.”
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