Court of Appeal declares Valentine Ozigbo Anambra PDP guber candidate

By our reporter/ The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday declared Valentine Ozigbo as the duly elected candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Anambra Governorship election slated for November 6, 2021.

A three-man panel of justices led by the President of the Court of Appeal, Honorable Justice Monica Dongban- Mensem, made the declaration following an appeal filed by Ozigbo.

The court held that the appeal challenging the judgement of the Awka High Court, which barred him from parading himself as the PDP candidate in the coming election, had merit and was, therefore, allowed.

It also set aside the decision of the lower court, declaring it null and void.

The appellate court also awarded the sum of N10 million in favor of Ozigbo, and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the names of Ozigbo and his running mate as the duly elected candidates of the PDP in the forthcoming election.

While urging the electoral umpire not to allow itself to be distracted in preparation for the election, the court advised INEC to wait for the decision of the final court in the land and not hurriedly comply with the judgments of trial courts.

In July, INEC dropped Ozigbo’s name from the list of candidates for the election in obedience to a court order but Ozigbo stated INEC’s reliance on a court order in not publishing his name as the PDP candidate was “a matter of procedure and temporary”.

He insisted that the party had forwarded only his name to INEC as its candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra.