Appeal Court re-affirms Ighodalo as Edo PDP guber candidate

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the nomination of Asue Ighodalo as governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State.

In a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice, A. M Lamido JCA in the suit marked CA/ABJ/CV/642/2024, the court on Monday, July 22, 2024 dismissed an appeal brought by Philip Shaibu challenging the May 27th Judgement of Justice James Omotosho of Federal High Court Abuja, which held that Ighodalo is the rightful and duly nominated candidate of the PDP in Edo State.

The appellate court held that the trial court was right and unassailable in its ruling that the appellant (Philip Shaibu) did not satisfy the condition precedent before instituting the action therefore the suit was premature.

The court also affirmed the trial court’s decision that appellant failed to prove the allegations of vote allocation against the respondent.

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It stated that the conduct of an election as well as results are presumed regular until the contrary is proved and there was no evidence from the affidavit of the appellant to show votes were allocated to the 4th respondent.

Consequently, the court dismissed Shaibu’s case and awarded N1 million as cost against him and in favour of the respective respondents.

It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had, last week, also affirmed Ighodalo as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the forthcoming September 21, 2024 guber election in Edo State.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE