Edo PDP crisis: Supreme Court dismisses Orbhi’s suit

The Supreme Court, on Friday, ended the leadership tussle in the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the dismissal of an appeal instituted at the apex court by Dan Orbhi-led faction.

The suit is seeking the court order to authenticate the ad hoc delegate elections conducted by Dan Orbhi’s faction and to invalidate another one conducted by Governor Godwin Obaseki’s faction.

The apex court in a judgement by Justice Emmanuel Agim, held that the issue of leadership by political parties is an internal affair and as such, the courts have no jurisdiction.

In the appeal marked SC/CV/979/2022, filed by Monday Osagie, the Supreme Court said the appeal lacked merit because it is not justiciable.

Agim who delivered the judgement asked political parties to always adhere strictly to their guidelines, rules and regulations in order to promote genuine democracy.

Obaseki and a chieftain of the PDP and Orbhi have been on each other’s throats on who controls the party in the state.

The governor, formerly of the All Progressives Congress APC defected to PDP, contested for the last governorship election on the party platform and won.

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On Wednesday, a Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognise and publish the names of candidates produced by the Obaseki-led faction of the Edo PDP as standard-bearers of the party in the forthcoming 2023 elections.

In the judgement delivered by Justice S. 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 flag bearer for Akoko Edo federal constituency, Kabiru Adjoto, among others.

Among the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs were 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 that has the power to conduct party primaries.

According to him, “there is nothing before the 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, INEC cannot rely on results prepared by the first defendant, Edo PDP.”

The Star