A Federal High Court in Abuja has refused to disqualify the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo, from contesting the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
The judgement by Justice Obiora Egwuatu yesterday struck out the suit brought before it by an aggrieved PDP governorship aspirant, Anselm Ojezua.
The judge held that the suit, which was filed on March 6, was premature, stressing that Ojezua failed to explore the internal dispute resolution mechanism of the party before instituting the action.
Justice Egwuatu agreed with Ighodalo’s lead counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), that it was wrong and amounted to a breach of the PDP’s mandatory rule for them to have bypassed the party’s appeal panel.
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He held that since any aggrieved governorship aspirant must explore internal dispute resolution mechanisms before approaching a court of law, the plaintiff was bound to comply with the rule like any other aspirant.
Ighodalo, on February 22, emerged as the PDP governorship flag-bearer with 577 votes to defeat his opponents, as declared by Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the primary, Ojezua sued Ighodalo, the PDP, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), asking the court to nullify the result of the primary election and void Ighodalo’s candidacy.
He alleged that a fake and adulterated delegates’ list was used in the conduct of the indirect primary election.
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