The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has struck out the appeal by governorship aspirants of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua seeking to disqualify the party’s candidate in the September 21, 2024, governorship election, Asue Ighodalo.
The aspirants, Esene and Ojezua had, in their appeal, prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the April 17 judgment by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja which dismissed their suit for being statute barred.
Justice Omotosho, in his judgement, had held that not only did they fail to prove their claim that Mister Ighodalo forged his voter’s card, but non-possession of the voter’s card did not constitute a disqualifying factor under the Constitution and the Electoral Act to deny a candidate from contesting election.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Hamma Barka, the appellate court affirmed the judgment by Justice Omotosho and held that the suit filed before the Federal High Court by Ojezua and four others was filed out of time and statute barred.
Justice Barka also agreed with the decision of the Federal High Court that, not only did Ojezua and others fail to establish their claim that Ighodalo forged his voter’s card, but 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.
The appellate Court that the appellants failed to appeal the findings of the trial court that Ighodalo applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the transfer of his registration from Lagos State to Edo State and that INEC issued a voter’s card to Ighodalo.
Justice Barka, after striking out the appeal for lacking merit awarded a cost of N3million against the appellants and in favour of Ighodalo, PDP and INEC.
