Edo election: Appeal Court dismisses suit seeking Ighodalo’s disqualification

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday dismissed an appeal seeking to disqualify Asue Ighodalo as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo.

A three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Hamma Barka, dismissed the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/863/2024.

The appeal was filed by governorship aspirants Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua.

Messrs Esene and Ojezua had, in the appeal, asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the 17 April judgment by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed their suit for being statute barred.

Mr Barka held that the suit filed before the Federal High Court by Messrs Ojezua and four others was filed out of time and statute barred.

He agreed with the judgment of the Federal High Court that Mr Ojezua and others failed to establish their claims that Ighodalo forged his voter’s card.

In addition, the judge held that their suit was bereft of any merit because it was based on a flawed assumption that not possessing a voter’s card constitutes a ground to disqualify a candidate from contesting an election.

He found that the appellants failed to appeal the trial court’s findings that Mr Ighodalo actually applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the transfer of his registration from Lagos State to Edo and that INEC issued him a voter’s card.

Justice Barka therefore struck out the appeal for being without merit and awarded a cost of N3 million against the appellants and in favour of Messrs Ighodalo, PDP and INEC.