APC’s last-ditch effort to disqualify PDP’s Ighodalo crumbles in courtroom showdown
An eleventh-hour attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to disqualify Asue Ighodalo, the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the upcoming Edo State election, has been dismissed.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, rejected the APC’s suit on Friday evening, ruling that it lacked merit.
The APC had sought to disqualify Ighodalo from the gubernatorial race, referencing a previous court ruling that questioned the validity of the primary election held by the PDP on February 22, 2024.
In that ruling, Justice Inyang Ekwo found that the PDP wrongfully excluded 378 delegates from its primary, although the election result itself was not invalidated. The APC, leveraging this decision, filed a fresh suit to remove Ighodalo from the election.
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However, Justice Lifu agreed with Ighodalo’s counsel, Chief Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), that the APC’s suit was frivolous, baseless, and constituted an overreach into the internal affairs of the PDP.
He ruled that the Federal High Court could not act as an appellate body over its own judgment and upheld that the high court’s earlier decision, which the APC used in its argument, had already been overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The judge further criticized the APC for meddling in the PDP’s internal processes, describing the party as a “busybody” and “meddlesome interloper.” Consequently, the court dismissed the disqualification request, affirming that it was devoid of substance.
The APC had named the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Asue Ighodalo, and the PDP as the 1st to 3rd defendants in the case, respectively.
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