Peter Obi

Peter Obi (born 19 July 1961) is the current governor of Anambra State in Nigeria. He has been governor from 17 March 2006 to 2 November 2006, 9 February 2007 to 29 May 2007 and 14 June 2007 to date.

Peter Obi stood for the governorship election as candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party in 2003; his rival, Chris Ngige, was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

After nearly three years of litigation, Ngige's victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal on 15 March 2006. Obi then took office for on 17 March 2006. On 2 November 2006, he was impeached by the state house of assembly after seven months in office and replaced the next day by Virginia Etiaba, his deputy, making her the first ever female Governor in Nigeria's history.

Obi successfully challenged his impeachment and was re-instated as the governor on 9 February 2007 by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu; Etiaba handed power back to him after the court ruling. He once again left office on 29 May 2007 following general elections.

Obi returned to the courts once more, this time contending that the four-year tenure he had won in the 2003 elections only started to run when he took office in March 2006. On 14 June, 2007 the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Obi's contention and returned Obi to office. This brought to an abrupt end the tenure of Obi's successor, Governor Andy Uba whose April 14, 2007 election the Supreme Court nullified on the grounds that Obi's four-year tenure should have remained undisturbed till March 2010. [cite news |first=Camillus |last= Eboh |title=Close Obasanjo ally loses governor's seat in Nigeria |url=http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL14239133.html |work=Africa.Reuters.com |publisher= Reuters|date= 2007-06-14|accessdate=2008-01-14 ]

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