The Edo State chapter of APC has been thrown into shock following news of Court of Appeal’s reaffirmation of Dr. Asue Ighodalo as the validly nominated Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for the September 21st Governorship Elections in Edo State.
In what could be described as a series of landmark Judicial victories, Dr. Asue Ighodalo today floored his opponents in all Five cases instituted against his Candidacy at the Court of Appeal Abuja.
First, the Court of Appeal set aside the July 17th Judgement by Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court which wrongfully held that 393 Delegates were excluded during the February 22 primaries of the PDP. The Appeal court held that the lower court erred in its decision. The Appellate court further stated that the law does not cloth ad hoc delegates with authority to sue on internal matters of a political party.
On the Appeal filed by Anslem Ojezua, the Court of Appeal stated that the Appellant Ojezua failed to exhaust internal dispute resolution mechanisms of the PDP first before filing his case and therefore his case was premature and dismissed for lacking in merit.
Speaking on the Court of Appeal judgements, Olu Martins, Deputy Director of Media and Communications for the Asue/Ogie Campaign Council, hailed the judgements that have brought to an end the seemingly intractable legal maze the APC and disgruntled PDP aspirants had created. “Edo people love Asue. All the opinion polls confirm this fact. Confronted with the grim reality of Monday Okpebholo’s incompetence and inevitable defeat at the polls, the APC had perhaps decided that a more effective strategy would be to get in through the back door by sponsoring distractive court cases through Proxies to derail Ighodalo’s candidacy.”
“This explains why they have been covertly sponsoring aggrieved and embattled fellows like Philip Shaibu, Anslem Ojezua and even some alleged phantom PDP delegates to file frivolous cases in Court with a view to getting Asue Ighodalo off the ballot as they realise it would be practically impossible to beat him in an electoral contest.”, Olu Martins said.
Sources disclosed that the duo of APC candidate Monday Okpebholo and his godfather Comrade Oshiomhole were completely rattled and shocked when news of Ighodalo’s victory broke today, forcing the party chairman to quickly end an ongoing APC rally at Oredo LGA as they all retreated to the Campaign Secretariat on Ikpopan in GRA Benin City for an emergency meeting to chart their response to the news from Abuja.
Recent polls by a reputable and Independent polling agency, Africa Polling International(API) indicates that Dr. Asue Ighodalo commands an unassailable 60% lead ahead of the September 21st Guber Election in Edo State.
