The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has replaced Micheal Umeoni with Chukwuma Soludo as the governorship candidates of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

This was published by the commission in a revised list on Thursday, in adherence to court orders.

However, INEC still excluded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the list of cleared candidates for the poll.

INEC in the list published on July 16 had excluded the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , while Michael Umeoji was listed as the candidate for APGA.
Recall that a federal high court in Awka, the Anambra capital in a ruling on July 19 affirmed Soludo as the candidate of APGA.

In a similar development, a court of appeal sitting in Kano on August 10 had affirmed Victor Oye as APGA chairman — Soludo was elected governorship candidate of the party during a primary organised by the Oye-led faction.

Speaking on the development, Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter education, had said the commission would comply with “valid court orders”.

In a statement on Thursday, Okoye said the commission met and deliberated on a number of issues, including the nomination of candidates for the Anambra governorship election.

According to him, the revised list of candidates is the result of a court order received by the commission on APGA, as well as substitution of candidates’ names by various political parties.

“The commission was served with the judgement of the Court of Appeal (Kano Division) which set aside the judgement of the High Court of Jigawa State on the leadership of APGA and the nomination of its candidates for the Anambra governorship election “, the statement reads.

Ijeoma Njoku reporting, Obinwannem News / August 20, 2021