By EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor, TONY EDIKE, OLA AJAYI & KOLADE OLAREWAJU
LAGOS — GOVERNOR Adebayo Alao_Akala, yesterday, won judicial relief to contest the forthcoming gubernatorial election even as his Enugu State counterpart, Mr. Sullivan Chime, suffered a major set back when the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, removed his name and those of his loyalists from the ballot.

The deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, however, dismissed the INEC action as illegal insisting that the three conditions needed to remove his name and others aligned with Chime for the election had not been met. He said it was the height of mischief as he insisted that there was no court order that may have warranted the INEC action.

It was, however, confirmed that Speaker Dimeji Bankole of the House of Representatives had successfully been accommodated in the PDP list of candidates favoured by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Yesterday was the INEC deadline for the substitution of candidates by the political parties for the National Assembly elections slated for April 2.

Court vacates order on Akala

The Federal High Court in Ibadan vacated the order of interim injunction earlier granted which restrained INEC from recognizing Governor Adebayo Alao_Akala as the PDP governorship candidate.

Chime and Akala

The court had restrained the electoral body based on the prayers of Elder Wole Oyelese, Senator Lekan Balogun, Azeem Gbolarumi and 34 others that the list presented by the PDP in the state was wrong.

Justice Johnson Shakarho, at the sitting of the court, yesterday, lifted the order saying all the defendants earlier restrained by the order were free to go ahead with their aspiration.

He said that in the course of presenting a candidate for the governorship, if it was discovered that Akala was wrongly fielded, the natural law would take its course.

Hearing on the substantive case was adjourned to February 21.

Professional agitators

The assertion by the court was immediately hailed by Governor Alao-Akala who described it as another failure by the professional agitators that were set against him.

The Governor who spoke through his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Prince Dotun Oyelade, said: “The victory at the Federal High Court today (yesterday), where the case against Governor Akala’s candidature was thrown out speaks volume of the futility of the opposition to forcibly stop Akala’s second term bid.

“Even before the High Court ruling, they have engaged in some hare_brained character assassination in form of production of illegal audio/visual tapes and spreading of false rumours to malign the person of the Governor and turn the tide against him.

“Just as those propaganda have failed, so is the litigation which was their last ditch attempt to abort Akala’s second term. The legal victory today (yesterday) coming barely 50 days to the gubernatorial election has decidedly separated those with the winning mentality from professional agitators.”

Chime, Ekweremadu displaced

INEC said the de_listing of Chime and all those on his list including the Deputy President of the Senate,  Ekweremadu  was in strict compliance with the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja which asked it to accept the list containing the name of Chief Onwuegbu and 38 others presented by the Caesar Okey Ogbonna_led faction of PDP loyal to the former National Chairman , Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.

The list of candidates from other political parties earlier withdrawn was also displayed by the commission as directed by Mr. Philip Umeadi, INEC’s National Commissioner, Legal Services in a letter to the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Josiah Uwazuruonye on Sunday.

Uwazuruonye told newsmen in Enugu few hours before the fresh list was displayed that he actually received a letter from the INEC headquarters asking him to display the list which was dispatched to him on Sunday.

He said that the delay in pasting the names of candidates at the commission’s office and the various constituencies was due to the large volume of the documents attached by the candidates which were being photocopied since the early hours of yesterday.

The governorship candidates’ list was displayed at the INEC office at 5.00 p.m. yesterday amidst wild jubilation by supporters of Onwuegbu who came from the camp of the ousted PDP National Chairman, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo.

Senior Special Assistant (Media) to Governor Chime, Mr. Chukwudi Achife, described the INEC action as untenable and absurd.

He said: “We are still watching the situation but if it is true it is something we consider very absurd and untenable. It must be vigorously challenged at the appropriate quarters.”

Ekweremadu on his part asserted that none of the three conditions required for the substitution of a candidate had been met by INEC. He described the INEC action which was done without a court order as pure mischief.

He told Vanguard in reference to Sections 35 and 36 of the 2010 Electoral Act: “It will take three things for a name to be removed and one of them is a voluntary withdrawal in writing, second is death and third is a substantive court judgment stating that the person is the actual candidate and not these interlocutory injunctions.”

Mr. Anayo Onwuegbu who emerged as PDP gubernatorial candidate in a rival primary of the party in Enugu and 38 other contestants for other offices on the ticket of the PDP had obtained an injunction at a Federal High Court in Abuja stopping INEC from recognizing Governor Chime and others aligned with him as the gubernatorial candidate.

Insistence of PDP
Yesterday’s action by INEC was despite the insistence of the PDP at a Federal High Court that Governor Chime and others submitted by it were the party’s candidates for the election.

The PDP’s National Legal Adviser, Chief Olusola Oke, told the Court presided over by Justice Abdul Kafarati that Chime and those on the list earlier submitted by the party were the valid candidates of the party.

While urging the court to set aside the interim order, national legal adviser of the party, Chief Olusola Oke, maintained that the PDP through its national headquarters in Abuja, forwarded the name of Governor Chime alongside other candidates vying for various positions in the state, to INEC, on January 17, 2011, whereas the order was issued on January 31.

Subsisting motion on notice

It would be recalled that the high court upon an ex-parte application filed before it by an aggrieved governorship aspirant of the PDP, Mr Anayo Onwuegbu and 38 other contestants, restrained INEC from giving recognition to Governor Chime or any other candidate of the party in that state, pending the hearing and determination of a subsisting Motion on Notice before it.

Justice Kafarati equally restrained PDP from submitting Governor Chime’s name to INEC as its governorship candidate for Enugu state, pending the hearing and determination of a suit challenging his candidacy.

After listening to the parties yesterday, presiding Justice Kafarati adjourned the case till February 16 for ruling.

It was a different song for Bankole, yesterday, as he was accommodated in the PDP list as candidate for Abeokuta South Federal Constituency for the House of Representatives.

Chairman of the Ogun Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, harmonized executive, Bashorun Dayo Soremi, confirmed that Speaker Bankole’s name has been put on the list to replace that of Mr. Segun Alawode who has stepped down for him.

Dayo Soremi said: “The list containing our party’s flag bearers have been submitted and accepted by INEC. The only alteration we made was the accommodation of Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole, as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan.”