Edo: Obaseki Wins as Court Orders INEC to Publish Names of Candidates in Gov’s Faction

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

A Federal High Court sitting in Benin, has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and publish the names of candidates produced by the Governor Godwin Obaseki faction of the Edo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as standard-bearers of the party in the forthcoming 2023 elections.

The is the second ruling coming from the same federal high court. The first came in May, when a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided by Justice Inyang Ekpo, gave a similar order to INEC to recognise the candidates of Chief Dan Orbih’s faction of the party in Edo.

However, in a judgement delivered yesterday by Justice S.M Shuaibu, the Court granted all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs included the party’s candidate for Edo South Senatorial District, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, Sunny Aguebor for Oredo Federal Constituency, and the standard bearer for Akoko Edo Federal Constituency, Kabiru Adjoto, among others.

Amongst the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs was an order of court mandating the fourth defendant, INEC, to publish the names of the plaintiffs as the validly elected candidates of the Edo PDP for the 2023 general election.

The judge noted that based on past decisions by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, the state chapter of a political party was not empowered by law to conduct party primaries and that only the National Working Committee (NWC) of a political party has the power to conduct party primaries.

According to him, “There is nothing before the Honourable Court to show that the primaries in which the 4th to 39th defendants participated was conducted by the National Working Committee of the PDP. Rather, their primaries were conducted by the Edo State chapter of the PDP.

“In my view, the power of INEC under Section 84 of the Electoral Act is limited to monitoring of party primary elections and does not extend to preparing or declaring the results of that election. This remains the law. In the light of the foregoing, the fourth defendant, INEC, cannot rely on results prepared by the first defendant, Edo PDP.”