The road to Osadebey Avenue for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, Asue Ighodalo, has been fraught with legal landmines, but like one destined for the ultimate victory, he has diffused them all, wearing the crown of victory every step of the way.
The legal battles centred around issues arising from PDP’s governorship primary election, allegation of voter card forgery, among others. Notable were the cases filed by the impeached former deputy governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu, and the case of alleged voter card forgery filed by Anselm Ojezua and Arthur Esene.
Victory over Shaibu:
On Wednesday, July 17th, 2024, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja upheld the nomination of Dr. Asue Ighodalo as the PDP candidate for the 2024 Edo State gubernatorial election.
The court’s decision, delivered by Justice James Omotosho, came in a judgement on a suit marked CS/469/24 filed by Philip Shaibu, who had challenged Ighodalo’s nomination as the PDP’s candidate.
In its ruling, the court dismissed Shaibu’s case and held that Ighodalo was duly nominated during the party’s primary election, which was held on February 22, 2024, at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City. Ighodalo emerged victorious, securing 577 votes to defeat Shaibu and 10 other aspirants.
Similarly, on Monday, July 22nd, 2024, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja upheld Ighodalo’s candidacy as the duly nominated and authentic candidate of the PDP for the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State.
In the ruling, the court dismissed the case brought before it by the former deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, upholding the ruling of the trial court which affirmed Ighodalo as the valid candidate of the PDP for the forthcoming guber poll in the state.
The Federal High Court had ruled that the Appellant did not satisfy the condition precedent (internal dispute resolution mechanism) before instituting the action and therefore declared that the suit was premature.
Upholding the judgement of the trial court, the Abuja Court of Appeal held that the suit was premature, noting that the position of the lower court is unassailable.
The court therefore awarded a cost N1,000,000 (One Million Naira) against Shaibu and in favour of Ighodalo, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and two others.
Victory over aggrieved 378 ad-hoc delegates:
On Monday, August 26th, 2024, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja set aside a judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court that ordered the PDP to allow the participation of the excluded 378 ad-hoc delegates in its primary election.
Justice Ekwo, while delivering judgement in a suit brought before the lower court by three aggrieved ad-hoc delegates, Kelvin Mohammed, Gabriel Okoduwa, and Ederaho Osagie, on behalf of themselves and 378 other delegates over their exclusion in the February 22 primary election that produced Asue Ighodalo as the PDP candidate in the September 21 gubernatorial election in the state, had held that the exclusion of the plaintiffs in the primary election was against the party’s constitution and ordered their inclusion in the primary election.
However, a three-man panel of the appellate court set aside Justice Ekwo’s judgment of July 4, 2024 on the grounds that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit of the aggrieved delegates in the first place.
The panel held that the plaintiffs who instituted the suit lacked the necessary legal rights to initiate the suit since they were not aspirants seeking political office.
“It is only an aspirant that can challenge the primary election of a political party,” the panel declared.
The Court of Appeal, in agreement with the submission of PDP, who had appealed the judgement of the lower court in a 25-ground appeal, argued that the issue of primary is an internal matter within the political party and, as such, outside the jurisdiction of any court. It declared that a primary election is an internal affair of any political party, hence the grievances of the plaintiffs cannot be entertained by any court, as they are not contesting political office but selected to only participate in the selection of a candidate for the party.
Ojezua, Esene and alleged voter card forgery:
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday, September 6th, 2024, affirmed Ighodalo as the duly nominated and authentic governorship candidate of the PDP in Edo State, dismissing the appeal against the PDP candidate regarding a forged voter card.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court had earlier dismissed the case by Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua for being statute-barred. Justice Omotosho had held that not only did they fail to prove their claim that Ighodalo forged his voter card, but non-possession of voter card did not constitute a disqualifying factor under the Constitution and the Electoral Act to deny a candidate from contesting election.
In the lead judgement of the Court of Appeal, Justice Hamma Barka affirmed the judgement by Justice Omotosho and held that the suit filed at the Federal High Court by Ojezua and four others was filed out of time and was statute-barred.
Delivering the judgement in the Appeal with case no CA/ABJ/CV/863/2024, the Appeal Court ruled that the “suit was filed after the time limit and is therefore dismissed”.
“Jurisdiction is a threshold issue and a pre-election suit filed after the 14-day limit and any breach (even by one day), means that the court is without jurisdiction,” Justice Barka said.
The Court further held that even on the merits, the allegation of forgery was not proven at all by the Claimant as they woefully failed to prove the elements of the alleged forgery.
Justice Barka therefore proceeded to strike out the appeal for being without merit and awarded N1 million costs each to PDP and Asue Ighodalo to be paid by the appellants.
Final thought:
With his various pre-election legal successes, which cleared all doubts and allegations surrounding his eligibility to contest the September 21 governorship election, political analysts say, given a level-playing field, Asue Ighodalo of the PDP has all it takes to replicate the same winning streak at the poll come Saturday.
