Edo Guber: Appeal Court dismisses suit against Ighodalo’s nomination as PDP candidate

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Monday affirmed the nomination of Asue Ighodalo as the lawful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.

A three-member panel of the appellate court affirmed Ighodalo’s nomination after dismissing the appeal filed by a governorship aspirant, Anselm Ojezua, for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had on June 26 dismissed Ojezua’s suit challenging the return of Ighodalo as winner of the February 22 primary election of the PDP.

The aspirant had prayed the court to nullify Ighodalo’s nomination on grounds of irregularities and manipulation of the delegates list used for the conduct of the primary.

However, Egwuatu in his judgment held that he lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case of the plaintiff because he did not exhaust the internal mechanism of the PDP before rushing to court.

He subsequently struck out the suit and declined to go into the merit.

Dissatisfied, Ojezua appealed the judgment on the grounds that the trial court was wrong in holding that his suit was premature, adding that Justice Egwuatu also erred in law by refusing to proceed with the merit of his case after its dismissal.

The appellant therefore prayed the court to set aside the judgement of the trial court and invoke Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Rules to go into the merit of the case.

But the three-member panel in the lead judgment delivered on Monday by Justice Peter Obiorah held that the judgement of the high court was “spot on” and as such no reason whatsoever to deviate from it.

According to the appellate court, since conditions precedent were not fulfilled by the plaintiff, the trial court was right to decline jurisdiction.

It was the position of Justice Obiorah that the none exhaustion of the internal dispute resolution mechanism of the PDP was fatal to the case of the appellant.

The appellate court noted that although the plaintiff had written some petitions to the Chairman of the PDP three man ward panel as well as the Chairman of the Edo State PDP Primary Election Panel wherein he had alleged manipulation of the delegate list and cast aspersions on the process of the primary election, he did not say anywhere that he made any compliant about the conduct of the February 22 primary that produced Ighodalo as candidate.

Justice Obiorah added that Ojezua despite being aware of the PDP’s Electoral Appeal Panel, did not lodge any compliant about the conduct of the primary there before rushing to court.

Besides, the appellate court faulted the appellant for seeking to separate the event leading to the primary election and the primary itself, noting that the alleged manipulation of delegate list cannot stand alone.

The appellate court further pointed out that where there are laid down rules it is not only biding on political parties but also there members, adding that candidates just as political parties are expected to abide by their own constitution and guidelines.

“I resolve this issue against the appellant and in favour of the respondents,” Justice Obiorah held, adding that the trial court was right in striking out the case for want of jurisdiction.

Although, the appellate court faulted the trial judge for refusing to proceed with the merit of the case, it however held that invocation of the Court of Appeal Rules to go into the merit of the case would be of no moment having agreed that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

“Since the lower court has no jurisdiction there is nothing for this court to invoke Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Rules.

“I cannot fault the decision of the lower court, accordingly I found no merit in this appeal, the only order to make is an order dismissing the appeal and I so do, the judgement of the lower court dismissing the suit for want of jurisdiction is hereby affirmed,” Justice Obiorah added.