The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed January 13, 2018, to conduct the re-run election for Anambra Central Senatorial district.
This was announced Thursday night by INEC National Commissioner, Solomon Soyebi, when he appeared on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had on Monday, ordered INEC, to conduct a re-run election for the district within 90 days.
A three-member panel of the court headed by Justice Tinuade Akomolafe Wilson, gave the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and its candidate, Chief Victor Umeh.
Umeh and his party had filed the appeal to challenge the February 29 verdict of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered the inclusion of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Senator Uche Ekwenife in the Anambra Central Senatorial re-run poll.
But the Abuja Court of Appeal while ordering INEC to conduct the poll within 90 days said, “Where a court nullifies an election and orders a fresh election, a political party which participated in the annulled election at whose instance the election was nullified cannot field a new candidate to contest in the fresh election”.
Anambra Central Senatorial seat has been vacant since Ekwunife’s election was nullified on November 7, 2015 by the Court of Appeal, Enugu division on the ground that she was not properly nominated by her party, the PDP, for the poll.
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