Anambra guber polls: Supreme Court stops PDP, Sambo from campaigning for Nwoye

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from commencing campaigns for Tony Nwoye for the Anambra State governorship election pending the determination of an appeal filed by another gubernatorial candidate, Nicholas Ukachukwu.

The court will hear Ukachukwu's appeal on November 4.

With this development, it is unlikely that Vice President Namadi Sambo will lead the much-touted party campaigns in Anambra which was slated to start on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the respondents in the matter gave assurances that their clients would abide by the apex court ruling.

Ukachukwu's lawyer, Joseph Daudu, SAN, had expressed concern that PDP was planning to commence campaign and hand over the party's flag to Nwoye as its candidate.

Earlier, the apex court had dismissed an application by another claimant to the party's ticket, Ubah, to be joined in the appeal brought by Ukachukwu.

The panel of Justices of the Supreme Court held that since Ubah already had an appeal pending before the court, his application amounted to an abuse of court process.

It will be recalled that a Port Harcourt Federal High Court had initially declared Ukachukwu as the candidate of the PDP, after which the Court of Appeal overturned the decision, and instead upheld Nwoye as the party's authentic candidate.

As a result of the development, Ukachukwu headed for the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the appellate court.