Court strikes out suit, dismisses it as premature
ABUJA — A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a suit that sought to disqualify the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Asue Ighodalo, from contesting the September 21 Edo state governorship election.
In a judgment by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, Wednesday, the court, struck out the suit brought before it by an aggrieved PDP Governorship aspirant, Anselm Ojezua.
The court, held that the suit, which was filed on March 6, was premature, stressing that the plaintiff failed to explore the internal dispute resolution mechanism of the party before instituting the action.
Justice Egwuatu agreed with Ighodalo’s lead counsel, Mr. Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, that it was wrong and amounted to a breach of PDP’s mandatory rule, for the plaintiff to have sidelined the party’s Appeal Panel.
He held that since it is mandatory for any aggrieved governorship aspirant to explore internal dispute mechanism resolution before approaching a court of law, the plaintiff was bound to comply with the rule like any other aspirant.
“In a matter of this nature, conditions precedent must be respected and complied with by any aspirant as had severally enunciated by the Supreme Court in all its decisions”, the Judge held, and struck out the suit.
Ighodalo, who is believed to be the preferred candidate of Governor Godwin Obaseki, emerged as the PDP governorship flag-bearer in February 22 following his victory in the party’s primaries where he secured 577 votes to defeat the other aspirants.
READ MORE; Ahead of Edo state governorship election
He was declared winner by the Chief Returning Officer of the Edo PDP Gubernatorial Primaries, Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the primaries, Ojezua dragged Ighodalo, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court, and among other things, prayed the court to nullify the outcome of the primaries, and void Ighodalo’s candidacy.
The plaintiff contended that provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and guidelines of the party were grossly violated in the conduct of the primaries held at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.
