BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN & HENRY UMORU
THE People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has insisted that Mr. Tony Nwoye remains the candidate of the party despite the interim court order obtained by Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu to replace him in the position in the gubernatorial election.

Tony Nwoye

It also emerged yesterday that Nwoye has filed a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar asking him to investigate and arrest Ukachukwu for allegedly forging documents and using same to obtain the court order against Nwoye. Ukachukwu had obtained a judgment disqualifying Nwonye as candidate on Tuesday, the deadline for the submission of nominations by parties.

The court presided over by Justice S. A Aliyu held that Nwoye was not eligible to participate in the August 24 primary election conducted under the supervision of Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State.

Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu

Declaring Ukachukwu the candidate of the PDP for the election on the ground that he was the only qualified aspirant in the said primary election, Justice Aliyu noted that Ukachukwu  scored the highest number of votes cast at the election, just as  Nwoye was restrained from parading himself as the candidate of the PDP for the election.

However, the PDP legal team led by J.K. Gadzama, SAN in a letter to INEC insisted that Nwoye remained the party’s candidate for the November 16 election. In his letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC, he stated, that Section 33 of the Electoral Act provided that only death or voluntary withdrawal could allow a political party to substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted to the commission.

“It is worthy of note that this judgment has come exactly on the deadline for the submission of candidates’ names to your esteemed Commission by political parties. The Peoples Democratic Party had since met up with this deadline, by submitting the name of its candidate, Hon. Tony Nwoye to your Commission, as well as his duly completed nomination forms acknowledged by the Commission.

In addition, the party has filed a Notice of Appeal against the said judgment as well as a Motion for Stay of Execution at the Court of Appeal. By this very fact, all matters relating to this judgment are meant to be stayed. In other words, the status quo must be maintained pending the Appeal”.

He also stated emphatically that, “based on the outcome of the primaries conducted by the party, it issued a certificate of return to Hon. Tony Nwoye and submitted his name to the Commission in respect of the Anambra State Governorship Election.

The effect in law is that Nicholas Ukachukwu is bound by the list wherein the name of Hon. Tony Nwoye was submitted and the party cannot retract that list or substitute the name of Hon. Tony Nwoye with that of Nicholas Ukachukwu unless Hon. Tony Nwoye withdraws his candidature or dies. This is the purport of sections 31(1), 33 and 35 of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended). “As can be seen by all and sundry, Hon. Tony Nwoye is still very much alive and has not withdrawn his candidacy for the said elections. PDP’s submission of his name is therefore, final unless any of the two instances cited above occurs.”

In other words, once a candidate has been nominated by his party and his name submitted to the Commission, that is the end of the issue of the nomination of the candidate unless he withdraws or dies. Not even the court can stop such nomination.

Meanwhile Nwoye has through his counsel, Barr. Ernest Nwoye filed a petition to the Inspector General of  Police praying him to invite Ukachukwu to explain how and why he got allegedly forged documents and allegedly used same to sue and obtain judgement from the court against Tony Nwoye.