Edo poll: Appeal court dismisses suit seeking Ighodalo’s disqualification

On Friday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja rejected an appeal aimed at disqualifying Asue Ighodalo as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State.

The three-judge panel, headed by Justice Hamma Barka, dismissed the appeal designated CA/ABJ/CV/863/2024. This appeal was brought by gubernatorial aspirants Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua.

Esene and Ojezua had challenged the April 17 decision by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which had dismissed their lawsuit on the grounds of being statute-barred. The appeal sought to overturn this judgment.

Justice Barka upheld the Federal High Court’s ruling, stating that the lawsuit filed by Ojezua and four other plaintiffs was both untimely and statute-barred. He concurred with the lower court’s finding that Ojezua and his co-plaintiffs had not demonstrated their allegations that Ighodalo had forged his voter’s card.

Additionally, Justice Barka found that the appeal lacked merit, as it was founded on the erroneous premise that the absence of a valid voter’s card could disqualify a candidate from running for office. The judge noted that the appellants failed to contest the trial court’s findings, which confirmed that Ighodalo had properly applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transfer his voter registration from Lagos State to Edo State, and that INEC had issued him a valid voter’s card.

Consequently, Justice Barka dismissed the appeal as unmeritorious and imposed a cost of N3 million against the appellants, awarding it to Ighodalo, the PDP, and INEC.