Court stops PDP from fielding Chime
A Federal High
Court sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered the People’s Democratic Party
to stop submitting the name of Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime as
its candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in the state
pending the determination of an action challenging his alleged
nomination.
In the exparte
application argued by Alex Aigbe Izinyon on behalf of a PDP
governorship contestant in the state, Anayo Onwegbu and 38 others, the
court granted an interim order restraining the Independent National
Electoral Commission from accepting or validating Mr. Chime’s name as
the party’s standard bearer for the governorship poll.
Thirty-eight
plaintiffs also got an order temporarily halting the electoral body’s
dealing with alternative lists of names. The trial judge, Abdu
Kafarati, ordered “that the first defendant (PDP) is hereby restrained
in interim from submitting any other names, list of names other than
the names contained in the list of candidates dated 17th January, 2011
which includes the plaintiffs as the gubernatorial candidate and deputy
gubernatorial candidate for Enugu State 2011 respectively and first
defendants for the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly in
Enugu State for submission to the second defendant (INEC) pending the
determination of the motion on notice.”
Mr. Kafarati adjourned the hearing of the substantive suits till February 8.
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