A Federal High Court, on Friday, in Abuja, in the interim, restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from accepting and using doctored ad-hoc delegate list from the local government primaries held last weekend in Edo, pending the determination of motion on notice.
The interim order followed an ex parte motion brought against the party by five members – Hon. Monday Iyore Osagie, Hon. Reuben Ikponmwan Ekhosuehi, Hon. Adeyanba Michael Osaro, Hon. Magdalene Omosigho Osawe, and Hon. Imariabe Destiny Oghoghoon – for themselves and on behalf of 576 ad hoc delegates elected at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wards congresses on the 30th April, 2022, in Edo state.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/598/2022, has the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Hon. Umar Nature, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 5th defendants.
Justice Inyang Ekwo restrained the defendants, their officers, agents or privies of the defendants from allowing any other ad hoc delegates or recognising any other list of delegates from any other source for the purpose of voting of candidates for election.
There had been a lingering crisis between Governor Godwin Obaseki’s faction of the party and that of South -South Vice Chairman, Dan Orbih in the state which comprises the original and authentic members of the party before the entry of the Obaseki faction.
Last week, there were reports that the governor hijacked the list of delegates that emerged from the April 30, 2022 three-man ad-hoc delegates congress in Edo State.
He was said to have replaced the list with his loyalists.
The list of delegates submitted to the Wadata House, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat, was different from the authentic list of people that won delegate slots across the state.
There were claims that the five-man committee sent to conduct the ad-hoc exercise was locked up in the Edo Government House and later ferried at night under security cover to address the press at the PDP’s secretariat in Benin to justify the doctored list.
For instance, in Esan North-East and Esan South-East local governments, the entire list of delegates in the 21 wards was said to have been replaced by one Emma Okodua, a House of Representatives aspirant.
This was reportedly done in a desperate attempt to corner victory in the scheduled May 12, 2022 forthcoming House of Representatives primary election.
Sources alleged that Okodua had secretly compiled a list of persons in the 21 wards making up the federal constituency, contrary to the authentic list of delegates that emerged from the three-man ad-hoc delegates congress.
An atmosphere of unease has enveloped the state, as party members have vowed to resist the purported hijack and doctoring of the list across the State.
There were feelers that the those who emerged in the process were considering a formal protest and legal action to upend the alleged executive rascality, impunity and arbitrariness.
