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

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city

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

This is the second ruling coming from the same federal high court.

The first came in May when a Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Inyang Ekpo gave similar order to INEC to recognise the candidates of Chief Dan Orbih faction of the party in the state.

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

The plaintiffs include 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.

Among the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs is an order of the court mandating the fourth defendant, INEC, to publish the names of the plaintiffs as the validly elected candidates of the Edo State 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 is 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 court to show that the primaries in which the fourth 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.”

The Judge further held: “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 light of the foregoing, the fourth defendant, INEC, cannot rely on results prepared by the first defendant, Edo State PDP.”