Edo poll: 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 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.

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

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

He agreed with the judgment of the Federal High Court that, not Ojezua and others fail 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 possession of a voter’s card constitutes a ground to disqualify a candidate from contesting election.

He found that the appellants failed to appeal the findings of the trial court that 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 a voter’s card to Ighodalo.

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