INEC Explains Exclusion of PDP from List of Anambra Guber Candidates

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given reasons for the exclusion of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the revised list of candidates for the Anambra State governorship election.

INEC had on Thursday, released a revised list of candidates for the Anambra State governorship poll, scheduled to hold on November 6, 2021, without any candidate for the PDP.
The commission had also excluded the PDP from the first list released on July 16.
Justifying the INEC’s action on Friday night, the commission’s National Commissioner, Mr. Festus Okoye, disclosed that the name of the governorship candidate uploaded to the commission’s portal was different from the name affirmed by the court.

Speaking during an interview with a national TV, Okoye noted that an Appeal Court had ruled that the commission should not publish the name of any PDP candidate until the determination of the suit.
On July 19, an Anambra High Court had ordered INEC to recognise Mr. Ugochukwu Uba as the party’s candidate, against Valentine Ozigbo, the preferred candidate of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Speaking further, the INEC commissioner said the PDP would be added to the candidates’ list after the judgment of the suit at the appellate court.

“About the PDP, what happened was that the PDP as a political party uploaded the name and personal particulars of a particular candidate to our nomination portal, and that was the candidate whose name the commission published.

“Thereafter, there was also another court judgment ordering and directing the PDP as a political party to submit the name of a different candidate as the candidate of the party.
“The PDP didn’t submit the name of that particular individual, and we can’t publish the name unless the PDP submits the name of that individual.

“Thereafter, the matter went to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal granted an accelerated hearing about the matter involving the PDP and its candidate, and then also asked the INEC not to publish the name of any of the candidate, pending the final determination of the matter before the Court of Appeal.”
Speaking on the multiple court judgments received by the commission on the Anambra election, Okoye said politicians were shopping for favourable court judgments.

“What is going on is what in legal parlance, we call ‘forum shopping’ — people who are looking for a place where they can get a favorable decision,” he said.
“For a party primary that took place in Anambra, for instance, some people will go to Bauchi State, some people will go to Jigawa State, some people will go to Imo State and to other places to go and look for a place where they can get a favourable decision.

“It is important for the judiciary to intervene in what is going on. If this spate of multiple and conflicting court orders is carried forward to the 2023 general election, it is going to have far-reaching consequences on our electoral process.”