Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, struck out a suit seeking to disqualify Barrister Asue Ighodalo from being presented as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the forthcoming Edo State governorship election.
The Judge struck out the suit filed by an aggrieved PDP governorship aspirant, Anselm Ojeizu on the ground that the case was premature at the time it was filed on March 6, 2024.
Delivering judgment in the suit, Justice Egwuatu held that the plaintiff, Anselm Ojeizu, failed to explore the mandatory internal mechanism of PDP to ventilate his anger before rushing to Court.
The Judge agreed with the lead counsel to Ighodalo, Mr Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), that it was wrong and a breach of PDP mandatory rule on the part of Ojeizu to have sidelined the appeal panel of the PDP in the resolution of his dispute before instituting the legal action.
Ojeizu had sued Ighodalo, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), praying for an order cancelling the February 22 primary election that produced Ighodalo as the PDP’s governorship candidate.
His grouse was that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and guidelines of PDP were grossly violated in the conduct of the primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, Edo State.
Specifically, the aggrieved governorship aspirant alleged that fake and adulterated delegates list was used in the conduct of the indirect primary election.
But, Justice Egwuatu held in his judgement that since it is mandatory for any aggrieved governorship aspirant to explore internal dispute mechanism resolution before approaching court, Ojeizu is bound to comply with the rule like any other aspirant.
“In a matter of this nature, conditions precedents must be respected and complied with by any aspirant as had severally enunciated by the Supreme Court in all its decisions”, the Judge held.
Ighodalo, a lawyer and investment banker had, on February 22, emerged as the governorship candidate of the PDP, having defeated other aspirants in a primary election held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin-City, Edo State.
Ighodalo scored 577 votes to beat Barrister Anselm Ojeizu , Arthur Esele, Osaro Onaiwu, Martins Uhomoibhi, Hadizat Umoru and Felix Akhabue all scoring zero, while six votes were voided out of the 585 accredited delegates.
He was declared the winner by the Chief Returning Officer of the Edo PDP Governorship Primaries and the the governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Dauda Lawal.
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