By Yahaya Idris
Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking to prohibit 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 threw out the suit instituted by an aggrieved PDP governorship aspirant, Anselm Ojezua, on the ground that the case was premature at the time it was filed on March 6.
Delivering judgement in the suit on Wednesday, Justice Egwuatu held that the plaintiff, Anselm Ojezua failed to explore the mandatory internal mechanism of PDP to ventilate his anger before rushing to Court.
Justice Egwuatu agreed with lead counsel to Ighodalo, Mr Akinlolu Kehinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, that it was wrong and a breach of PDP mandatory rule on the part of Ojezua to have sidelined the Appeal Panel of PDP in the resolution of his dispute before filing the case.
Ojeizu had sued Ighodalo, the 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 gubernatorial candidate.
His grouse was that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the guidelines of PDP were grossly violated in the conduct of the primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City.
Specifically, the aggrieved governorship aspirant alleged that a fake and adulterated delegates list was used in the conduct of the indirect primary election.
But Justice Egwuatu held that since it is mandatory for any aggrieved governorship aspirant to explore internal dispute mechanism resolution before approaching a court of law, Ojezua 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 said.
Ighodalo, a lawyer and investment banker, had on February 22 emerged as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having defeated other aspirants in a primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. The lawyer scored 577 votes to beat Barrister Anselm Ojezua, 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 Gubernatorial Primaries and the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Dauda Lawal.
