Court of Appeal stops Soludo's candidacy again

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has once again told Charles Chukwuma Soludo, candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), to perish the thought of becoming the governor of Anambra state in the forthcoming gubernatorial election scheduled for February 6, 2010.

The court this morning restated its earlier order that Mr. Soludo could not feature as the PDP's flag bearer. The ruling followed a suit filed by disaffected aspirants asking the court to determine that Soludo became the PDP’s candidate in an irregular and shady manner.

Our investigations indicate that Soludo was imposed as the PDP candidate by a triumvirate of forces – Umaru and Turai Yar’adua, erstwhile chairman of the PDP board of trustees, Tony Anenih, and former Nigerian Vice President Alex Ekwueme.

Soludo, a controversial former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was foisted as the governorship candidate after widespread violence and lawsuits led to a stalemate in the party’s primaries.

The court found that the grounds of appeal against Soludo's candidacy were strong and that it would serve the interest of justice if he was restrained from parading himself as the party's candidate.

The lead justice has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to strike out Soludo's name from the list of candidates pending the determination of the final appeal.