Appeal Court Rejects Esene, Ojezua’s Case To Disqualify Ighodalo

Asue Ighodalo

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has struck out an appeal filed by governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua seeking to disqualify the candidate of the party, Asue Ighodalo.

The decision was reached as the people of Edo State plan to elect a new governor on 21st of September 2024.

Esene and Ojezua had, in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/863/2024, 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 had also held that, not only did they fail to prove their claim that Ighodalo forged his voter’s card, non-possession of voter’s card did not constitute a disqualifying factor under the Constitution and the Electoral Act to deny a candidate from contesting election.

In the lead judgment of the Court of Appeal on Friday, Justice Hamma Barka 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 finding of the Federal High Court that, not only did Ojezua and others failed to establish their claim that Ighodalo forged his voter’s card, 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 State and that INEC issued a voter’s card to Ighodalo.

Justice Barka proceeded to strike out the appeal for being without merit and proceeded to award the cost of N3million against the appellants and in favour of Ighodalo, PDP and INEC.

Other members of the panel – Justices Usman Musale and Okon Abang – agreed with the lead judgment.