Abuja — In what is a victory for embattled Anambra governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Central Bank Governor (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Senchi Danlami yesterday struck out a motion brought against Soludo's nomination by the party.

The applicants we-re challenging the legality of the process that led to the nomination of Soludo as the PDP flagbearer for the February 6, 2010 election in the state.

The applicants prayed the court to invalidate the nomination as well as restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or accepting Soludo's candidacy.

Valentine Ozigboh, Victoria Nwankwo, Nkoli Imo and Ferdinand Okoye who brought the suit before the court had argued that the party rubbished its constitution and Article 17 of its electoral guidelines by picking Soludo through a process they claim was faulty.

They added that the purported congress held by the party at the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Centre Abuja on October 9, 2009, was done in total disregard to a subsisting order made by an Anambra high court sitting in Aguata on October 7, 2009, which they said prohibited the PDP from conducting its state congress on October 9 this year as earlier scheduled.

An Abuja high court had on October 23, 2009 made a preservative order restraining Soludo from parading himself as the candidate of the PDP in the said polls pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

However, after reviewing the submissions of the counsel, the court reversed the restraining order it earlier made, stressing that the complained action (nomination of Soludo) was already concluded and his name forwarded to INEC, before the plaintiffs sought and secured the restraining order in the first place.

Justice Senchi specifically noted that the alleged illegality by the PDP was perfected on the 9th of October, 2009, while the suit that culminated in the restraining order was instituted on October 21 and the order granted on October 23, this year.

Before striking out the suit, the trial Judge relied on the decided case law of Ehinlawo vs Oke, to insist that the nomination of a candidate by a political party was within the purview of intra-party domestic affair, which he said the court lacked the Jurisdiction to adjudicate on.

He told the plaintiffs to go back to Anambra High Court whose order was alleged to have been violated for redress, adding that he observed inconsistencies in the separate statements of claims filed by the plaintiffs in the suit.

Soludo and the PDP on the 6th of November had urged the Abuja high court to vacate its restraining order against the nomination. They also asked the court to strike out the suit before it for want of jurisdiction and on the premises that it constituted an abuse of court process.

They accused the plaintiffs of deceiving the court into making a restraining order against an action that was already concluded.

They maintained that it would amount to duplication and abuse of process if the case before the Abuja high court continued when there was a similar suit on the same subject matter, subsisting before an Anambra high court.

Justice Senchi had on October 23, 2009, after receiving an affidavit of urgency filed by the plaintiffs, made an order restraining PDP from presenting or forwarding Soludo's name to INEC as its candidate, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. He also restrained Soludo from parading himself as the candidate of the party.

In addition, INEC was restrained from recognising or dealing with Soludo as the PDP flagbearer pending the resolution of all the controversies trailing his nomination.

The plaintiffs had listed the PDP, Soludo and the INEC as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively in the suit that was struck out yesterday.