Anambra Guber: PDP Insists On Nwoye

As deadline for submis
sion of candidates’ names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), expires tomorrow for the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State, the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has submitted the name of Tony Nwoye  to the commission, seeking his recognition by the commission as the party’s flagbearer for the election.
Nwoye’s name was submitted to the INEC through a letter dated Friday, September 13, 2013, and signed by its counsel and Managing Partner, J.N Egwuonwu Esq., J.K. Gadzama, which alerted the commission to reports in the media where it was alleged that Senator Andy Uba had been upheld as the party’s candidate for the election upon the order of the courts.
The letter deposed that the judgment of the court, ordering the parties to the dispute on the legitimacy of the Anambra State PDP executive should maintain the status quo, however, did not in any way infer that the nomination of Nwoye through the primary conducted by the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, should be upturned.
The letter, which noted that the conduct of gubernatorial primaries was the exclusive function of the NEC of political parties, as stipulated by Section 87 of the Electoral Act, further stated that a change of leadership, even if enforced on the party, could not alter the job procedurally done by the NEC, which produced Nwoye as the party’s candidate.
While appealing to the INEC boss, Professor Attahiru Jega, to maintain the integrity of the commission under his leadership, the PDP, while referring to the order of the Federal High Court, asking the parties in Anambra State to maintain the status quo, wrote:
“Sadly, this order of court, most especially the third paragraph, which states that the first and second defendants (the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Commission) should recognise and deal with the first Plaintiff (Ejike Ogbuebego) in all matters in Anambra State has been badly misconstrued and the position of the court deliberately and mischeviously misrepresented. Some media houses even reported that the court had upheld Andy Uba’s nomination as the PDP Anambra State gubernatorial candidate when nothing of the sort transpired in court.”