Justice Omotosho had in his judgment in May held that Ighodalo is the rightful and duly nominated candidate of the PDP in Edo State.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Monday upheld the nomination of Asue Ighodalo as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State.
The court also awarded the sum of N1 million against the reinstated Deputy Governor of the state, Philip Shaibu.
The appellate court in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice, A. M Lamido JCA in the suit marked CA/ABJ/CV/642/2024, dismissed an appeal brought by Shaibu challenging the May 27, 2024 judgment of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja.
Justice Omotosho had in his judgment in May held that Ighodalo is the rightful and duly nominated candidate of the PDP in Edo State.
The appeal court held that the trial court was right and unassailable in its ruling that the Appellant, Philip Shaibu, did not satisfy the condition precedent before instituting the action therefore the suit was premature.
The court further affirmed the trial court’s decision that Appellant failed to prove his allegations of votes allocation against the Respondent.
According to the court, the conduct of an election as well as results are presumed regular until the contrary is proved and there was no evidence from the affidavit of the Appellant to show votes were allocated to the 4th Respondent.
Consequently, the court dismissed Shaibu’s case and awarded N1,000,000 as cost against him and in favour of the respective Respondents.
