A panel of Appeal Court judges today clears Val Ozigbo to contest 6 November Anambra governorship battle as PDP candidate.
Appeal Court President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, delivered the lead judgement and chaired the panel.
Chief Ozigbo appealed an Awka High Court judgement which nullified his election by party delegates to contest the election.
The Abuja Appeal panel declared that Ozigbo was validly elected as candidate by delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The decision consequently nullifies the judgement of the Awka High Court and clears the final hurdle for Ozigbo to emerge as candidate.
In addition, the appeal panel also awarded N10million as exemplary costs to Ozigbo.
Chief Valentine Ozigbo has hitherto been fighting a plethora of court battles with factional rivals since winning his party’s nomination
Appeal Court clears Ozigbo for Anambra 2021 battle
After its primaries, Ozigbo headed to a federal high court at Awka to authenticate his victory.
He asked the court to compel INEC to recognize himself as validly nominated party candidate for 6 November.
Why was this action necessary? An Abuja High Court had initially restrained the Nwobu faction from conducting the primaries that produced Ozigbo as candidate.
One Samuel Anyakorah filed the case against a PDP faction led by Nwobu.
Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa heard the matter in Awka, agreed with the position and ordered INEC to publish Ozigbo as PDP’s candidate.
His opponents however appealed the judgement.