The Edo State political firmament was astir, yesterday, as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, nullified the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which produced Dr Asue Ighodalo as its candidate for the September 21 election in the state.

The court, in the judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the PDP primaries conducted on February 22, failed to meet the requirements of the Electoral Act 2022, guidelines for the conduct of the poll, as well as party’s constitution.

The verdict elicited mixed reactions in the polity. The Edo PDP Chairman, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, the party’s campaign organization in the state downplayed the judgment saying that Ighodalo had not been removed as their flagbearer.

However, immediate past Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, who kicked against the primaries and challenged its outcome in court, said he has been vindicated. Shaibu emerged winner of parallel PDP primaries but went to court when the party submitted Ighodalo’s name as its standard bearer.

Like Shaibu, the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, was in a celebratory mood as its Governorship Candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, counselled Ighodalo to withdraw from the contest immediately. Also APC campaign council taunted the PDP flagbearer and asked him to join the APC campaign.

Why court sacked Ighodalo

Justice Ekwo held that the evidence adduced before the court established that Ighodalo did not emerge through a valid process.

He held that the exhibit presented by the PDP showed that the returning officers that prepared the result sheets merely sat at a place to manufacture the outcome of the exercise.

The court said there was no evidence that the necessary delegates took part in the primaries, stressing that the party failed to prove that the plaintiffs were not qualified to participate in the exercise.

According to the court, PDP’s failure to abide by the provisions of the relevant electoral laws and guidelines rendered as a nullity, the outcome of the said primaries it held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.

It dismissed PDP’s contention that the case was non-justiciable as the choice of delegates for the election was purely an internal affair of a political party, which no court has the jurisdiction to meddle into.

The judgment followed a suit brought before the court by three aggrieved plaintiffs, on behalf of 378 other ad-hoc delegates that ought to have participated in the primaries.

Cited as1st to 4th defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/165/2024, were the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the PDP, its National Secretary and its Vice Chairman, South-South.

Justice Ekwo, while deciding the matter in favour of the plaintiffs, noted that INEC failed to file any process in the matter, saying it would abide by the judgment of the court.

Specifically, the plaintiffs, who were said to be loyal to the impeached former deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, had in the suit they filed on February 8, prayed the court to stop the defendants from excluding them from participating in the primaries.

Led by Kelvin Mohammed, Mr Gabriel Okoduwa and Mr Ederaho Osagie, the plaintiffs told the court that they were the authentic ad-hoc delegates from 12 local government areas and 127 wards in the state.