The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was ordered to allow the participation of 381 ad-hoc delegates in its February 22 primary election in Edo State by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
In the state’s governorship election on September 21, 2024, Asue Ighodalo emerged as the party’s nominee in the primary election.
A three-member panel of the appellate court upheld the Justice Inyang Ekwo’s decision on July 4, 2024, arguing that the trial court lacked the necessary legal standing to hear the case in the first place.
The court ruled in a unanimous decision that it has no authority to influence the PDP’s selection of candidates for the Edo State governorship election on September 21.
On the grounds that 378 delegates who were supposed to cast ballot in the primary election were unlawfully excluded by the party, Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja had in July annulled the PDP governorship election in Edo State.
One Kelvin Mohammed brought the lawsuit in a representative capacity.
In the running of the primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, Justice Ekwo found that both the Electoral Act 2022 and the PDP guidelines were violated.
Justice Ekwo, who said that Exhibit PDP 1 tendered by the party was bereft of evidence, held that the plaintiffs, through the exhibits tendered, were able to establish their case against the defendants.
The judge claimed that the PDP’s exhibit revealed that the poll’s creators had only sat down to make the poll’s results.
He said the exclusion of the 381 delegates, including the plaintiffs, was against the provisions of the law.
Although the First Defendant, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), filed a memorandum of appearance in the lawsuit, Justice Ekwo found that the Commission had to skip the process step.
According to the judge, the 1st defendant’s counsel only said it would be bound by the decision of the court.
“I found that the case of the plaintiffs succeeds on merit”, he had said.
The three aggrieved ad-hoc delegates, on behalf of the 378 others, had sued INEC, the PDP, its national secretary, and the vice chairman, South-South as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.
In the suit, the plaintiffs sought two orders.
In addition, these include an order for the defendants or their agents to not act but to provide cause for the plaintiffs’ requests that the plaintiffs’ reliefs be denied in their original summonses regarding the defendants’ plans to disqualify them and 378 other delegates from the primaries on February 22 in Edo.
The plaintiffs, which include Kelvin Mohammed, Gabriel Okoduwa, and Ederaho Osagie, on behalf of others in 12 local government areas and 127 wards, averred that it would be in the interest of justice for their reliefs to be granted.
