The November 2021 Anambra governorship election is ironically at the root of why Val Ozigbo was disqualified from Senate race.
Chief Ozigbo suffered a second career defeat in politics as the PDP rejected his bid to contest a Senate seat.
Ozigbo flew the PDP flag in the November 2021 Anambra governorship election but came a distant second in the contest.
Prof Chukwuma Soludo of APGA thoroughly defeated him with a wide margin in the contest.
This time around, a screening panel drafted from Abuja headquarters disqualified Ozigbo for submitting interest and nomination forms late.
Two other party heavyweights, Chief Chuma Nzeribe and Dr Obinna Uzor, suffered similar fate at the screening.
The Committee rejected Nzeribe’s application for allegedly giving false information to it.
The Committee, headed by Chief Sunny Ude-Okoye, former national youth leader, however cleared six aspirants to participate in the primaries.
Among the lucky six are Chief Chris Uba as well as Senators Stella Oduah and Uche Ekwunife.
House of Representatives aspirants however fared better with the Committee.
The Commiittee members cleared all 49 aspirants that appeared before them to run.
Why Ozigbo lost
Although Ozigbo promised not to challenge his governorship loss, he apparently hoped to benefit from another case challenging Soludo’s win.
The Udeokoye Committee said in its report that “he (Ozigbo) told the committee that he was awaiting the Supreme Court Judgment in SC/CV/240/2022 and SC/CV/241/2022.”
He also hoped “that if Supreme Court annuls the election, he would become the governor.
“On that basis, he concluded that there would be no need to submit the senatorial form within the specified time.
“On April 27, 2022, the Supreme Court now upheld the contemplated litigation.
“Unfortunately, by the time he submitted the form, he was already out of time.’
Why Val Ozigbo was disqualified from Senate race
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