COURT CLEARS IMOKE, NDOMA-EGBA, OTHERS FOR APRIL POLLS

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Calabar -A Federal High Court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State,  has directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to accept the list of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidates for the forthcoming general elections.

Trial judge in the matter,  Justice Adetokumbo Ademola, in his judgment in the case by the PDP, challenging the refusal of INEC in the state to accept and recognise the party's candidates for the April polls, said that although INEC was strict with  its  deadline for congresses, it failed to   notify the party that it had  not conducted a valid congress.

Justice Ademola said that though the commission cannot hold the party responsible for violating section 87 of the Electoral Act, which recommends strict procedures for the emergence of candidates for the polls,  that by so doing,  the purported  congress held by the party stands valid.

He, therefore, ordered the electoral body to accept the party's list of candidates for the April polls.

But the opposition political parties in the state, under the umbrella of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, has faulted the judgment and vowed to appeal the judgement.

Governor Liyel Imoke, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, Prince Bassey Otu, members of the House of Representatives now PDP candidates for Cross River South Senatorial district and 35 others had dragged  INEC to court for refusing to accept the list of the candidates after the party's primary election.