Anambra Guber: Uba fights on, as Appeal Court decides fate February 2

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has scheduled hearing for February 2 this year in two appeals seeking to overturn the December 20, 2021 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja voiding Andy Uba’s participation in the last governorship election in Anambra State as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

A three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Stephen Adah, chose the date on Friday to enable parties file all necessary documents.

The first appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/13/2022 was filed by the APC, while the second marked: CA/ABJ/CV/36/2022 was filed by Emmanuel Andy Nnamdi Uba (Andy Uba). APC and Uba are contending, in the appeals, that the Federal High Court in Abuja erred in law in holding, in the December 20 that the APC did not conduct a valid primary and therefore, did not present a valid candidate for the election.

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court had, in the December 20 judgment, found among others, that Uba was never a candidate in the election held on November 6 having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election held by the APC.

Justice Ekwo held that the plaintiff, George Moghalu (an APC aspirant for the election) succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election from which Uba claimed to have emerged as the party’s candidate.

The judgment was on a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/648/201 with the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Uba listed as defendants. Moghalu had queried the legitimacy of the governorship primary election purportedly conducted by the APC on June 26, 2021, which allegedly produced Uba as the party’s candidate for the November 6, 2021 election.