The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, ordered Professor Chukwuma Soludo to stop parading himself as the standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State.

Justice Mary Odili, who led three other justices of the court, also ordered the parties to maintain status quo ante bellum and at the same time ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to recognise Professor Soludo as PDP standard-bearer.

With this order, no party in the matter will carry out further activities while the motion subsists. For instance, Soludo, who the appellants accused of having commenced his campaign, will now stop campaigning or parading himself as the candidate of the PDP for the said election pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

The appellants who included Valentine Ozoigbo, Nkoli Imo, and Ferdinand Okoye, had earlier alleged before an Abuja high court that PDP had violated the rules of the party and electoral law in choosing Prof. Soludo as candidate, but they lost.

Following the defeat, they appealed at the court of appeal, praying it to set aside the ruling of the lower court. Justice Odili, in a ruling on whether or not to grant the appellants an interim injunction, said, “We are not unaware of the essence of time in this appeal.”

Against this background, the court fixed December 14 for the People’s Democratic Party to respond to the pending motion so that the matter would progress.

Earlier, counsel for the PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, who is also the party’s National Legal Adviser, had told the court to discountenance the oral application of the appellants since he was not served, adding that “I am yet to see even the page one of the motion.”

He had prayed the court to adjourn the matter to enable them to have the motion and respond accordingly. Besides, he prayed the court to refuse the oral application of the appellants also on the grounds that they failed to place any material evidence before the court to support their prayers and that they caould not be compensated from their own wrong doing; not serving the respondent as ordered by the court.

In the same vein, counsel for Prof. Soludo, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), told the court that granting the application of the appellants would amount to a subterfuge to the main order they sought to obtain in the appeal .

He also told the court not to be allowed to be used as “engine of operation and hardship in stopping a process of democratic governance.” Also addressing the court before the ruling, counsel for INEC, Chief Amaechi Nwaiwu (SAN), said his client “is an independent party in this matter and granting or refusing any application is at the discretion of the court.”

Although the court had on October 23 made a preservative order restraining Soludo from parading himself as the candidate of the PDP in the said election, upon going through the facts of the matter, it observed that the complained action (nomination of Soludo) was already a concluded action which could not still be dealt with by court any longer.

But the lower court had observed that the alleged offence of PDP was perfected on the October 9 while the suit that culminated in the restraining order came after the nomination and subsequent forwarding of Soludo’s name to INEC.

The court had noted that the bone of contention bordered on nomination of a party’s candidate in an election which, it explained, fell under the purview of domestic (intra-party) affairs of the PDP and not the court.

The court cited Section 17 of the PDP constitution as well as Section 85 (1) of the 2006 Electoral Act wherein it was enshrined that selection of party candidate is a domestic matter that cannot be adjudicated upon by any court.

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