An Abuja high court, yesterday, set November 16 as date to deliver ruling on the candidature of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State in next year's election.

Presiding judge, Justice Danlami Senchi, fixed the judgment date following adoption of arguments by parties in the suit.

Four aggrieved governorship aspirants under PDP led by Valentine Ozigboh had on October 23 obtained an ex parte order at the Abuja High Court, which restrained Soludo from parading himself as candidate of the party on the ground that his selection was done in flagrant disobedience to an Aguata high court, Anambra State.

The court order also restrained the PDP and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising Soludo in the status pending the final determination of the main suit against him.

However, yesterday, counsel to Soludo, Patrick Ikwueto, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), persuaded Justice Danlami Senchi to vacate and set aside the ex parte order to enable him execute his governorship project.

In the two motions argued before Justice Senchi, Ikwueto demanded that the order, which had kept Soludo's candidature in the limbo be lifted and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit brought against him.

He claimed that the court granted the ex parte order on inconsistent and contradictory statements of claims by the plaintiffs.

He insisted that the court ought not to have granted the order because the act of Soludo's nomination complained of had been completed at the time the suit was filed.

The counsel to the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor also claimed that the plaintiffs suppressed and misrepresented facts in order to get the court order, and pleaded that the order be discharged.

In the second motion, Ikwueto challenged the powers of the court to hear the case on the ground that nomination of a candidate is an exclusive right of each political party, which no court can inquire into.

Soludo's counsel maintained that court can only come in after the name had been submitted to INEC and only when the issue of substitution arises. He thus urged the court to decline jurisdiction and strike out the suit for lacking in merit.

His line of argument was toed by counsel to PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, who is also the party's national legal adviser.

The party insisted that what the plaintiffs were challenging was the process that produced the candidate, adding that the Anambra High Court order, which prohibited PDP congress and being paraded by the plaintiffs had expired at the time Soludo was picked on consensus.

PDP therefore urged the court to set aside its order of October 23 and to also refuse to hear the case on the ground that the issue of nomination of candidate is an internal affair of any party, which no court can adjudicate upon.

The four plaintiffs, however, in their reply, asked the court to sustain and maintain the order in order to protect their legal and political rights.

They submitted that the court has jurisdiction to hear the case because, according to them, the PDP deliberately violated its own constitution as well as Electoral Act 2006 in the selection of Soludo.

After listening to the arguments, Justice Senchi fixed November 16 to rule on the case.