March 8, 2007
Saharareporters, NEW YORK
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria released the list of approved gubernatorial candidates for all the 36 states of Nigeria today excluding names of opposition candidates in Anambra State. This fuels further speculations that Preisdent Obasanjo's former senior special assistant on Domestic Affairs Mr. Andy Uba will go to the polls without any credible opposition, a feat being guaranteed by the INEC chairman and Andy Uba's nominee to INEC, Mr. Maurice Iwu.
The names of AC's, Dr. Chris Ngige and Peter Obi of APGA were conspicuously missing from the list of 'cleared' and qualified candidates released by INEC today. It is the first major indication that Vice President Abubakar Atiku, the presidential candidate of the AC will be barred from running in the general elections regardless of court rulings which nullifies INEC's position on his candidacy. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted Alhaji Atiku reprieve by barring INEC from disqualifying him on the strength of earlier indictments against him by the office of the President.
Meanwhile, the legal drama against the candidacy of Mr. Andy Uba continued in Abuja today as the Chief Judge of the Abuja Federal High Court, Mrs. Rose Ukeje assigned the case to another High Court Judge, Justice Babs Kewunmi to hear it. However, when the plaintiffs arrived his court room to hear the fixed date for the hearing of the case the Abuja -based judge told them that he was yet to decide whether to take the case or not , citing "powerful interests and avoidable controversy" as the reason why he may excuse himself from the case.
Shortly after Saharareporters reported that the case was assigned to the wife of Adamawa's State PDP candidate, Mrs. Binta Murtala-Nyako, she disqualified herself from hearing the case saying that her taking the case will amount to conflict with her husband's political interests. No dates have been fixed yet for hearing and it is also not clear if the release of Andy Uba's name by INEC as PDP candidate for Anambra State will affect the case or not.
It will be recalled that the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Abuja, Mrs. Roseline Ukeje whose son is a close associate of Mr. Emmanuel Andy Uba yanked the case away from another judge, Justice Anuri Chukwukere in a bid to frustrate the case administratively. The legal case was brought against Andy Uba for declaring under oath, false academic degrees as submitted in his INEC forms on December 15th 2006, in particular the plaintiffs are challenging his "Doctor of Sciences" degree which he claimed was obtained in 1996 from a certain Buxton University in the UK. It has since be revealed that Buxton University does not exist in the UK.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria released the list of approved gubernatorial candidates for all the 36 states of Nigeria today excluding names of opposition candidates in Anambra State. This fuels further speculations that Preisdent Obasanjo's former senior special assistant on Domestic Affairs Mr. Andy Uba will go to the polls without any credible opposition, a feat being guaranteed by the INEC chairman and Andy Uba's nominee to INEC, Mr. Maurice Iwu.
The names of AC's, Dr. Chris Ngige and Peter Obi of APGA were conspicuously missing from the list of 'cleared' and qualified candidates released by INEC today. It is the first major indication that Vice President Abubakar Atiku, the presidential candidate of the AC will be barred from running in the general elections regardless of court rulings which nullifies INEC's position on his candidacy. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted Alhaji Atiku reprieve by barring INEC from disqualifying him on the strength of earlier indictments against him by the office of the President.
Meanwhile, the legal drama against the candidacy of Mr. Andy Uba continued in Abuja today as the Chief Judge of the Abuja Federal High Court, Mrs. Rose Ukeje assigned the case to another High Court Judge, Justice Babs Kewunmi to hear it. However, when the plaintiffs arrived his court room to hear the fixed date for the hearing of the case the Abuja -based judge told them that he was yet to decide whether to take the case or not , citing "powerful interests and avoidable controversy" as the reason why he may excuse himself from the case.
Shortly after Saharareporters reported that the case was assigned to the wife of Adamawa's State PDP candidate, Mrs. Binta Murtala-Nyako, she disqualified herself from hearing the case saying that her taking the case will amount to conflict with her husband's political interests. No dates have been fixed yet for hearing and it is also not clear if the release of Andy Uba's name by INEC as PDP candidate for Anambra State will affect the case or not.
It will be recalled that the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Abuja, Mrs. Roseline Ukeje whose son is a close associate of Mr. Emmanuel Andy Uba yanked the case away from another judge, Justice Anuri Chukwukere in a bid to frustrate the case administratively. The legal case was brought against Andy Uba for declaring under oath, false academic degrees as submitted in his INEC forms on December 15th 2006, in particular the plaintiffs are challenging his "Doctor of Sciences" degree which he claimed was obtained in 1996 from a certain Buxton University in the UK. It has since be revealed that Buxton University does not exist in the UK.
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