A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an order restraining the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, (EDOSIEC), from going ahead with the planned local government elections slated for April 19, 2022, pending the determination of the suit challenging the action of the State House of Assembly.
The order of the court followed an exparte application filed by Irene Sylvester, Ayoboh Francis, Edogun Toyin and Ogioba Kelvin, praying the court to restrain the state electoral body from conducting elections into Local Government Councils in Edo State.
Respondents in the exparte motion are, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF), Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Clerk of the Edo State House of Assembly, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), and its National Chairman, Professor Iyiorcha Ayu.
In the motion exparte filed on March 31, the applicants, who are PDP members in Edo State, want the court to restrain INEC and its agents from handing over the voters’ register, covering all the local government councils in Edo State, for the conduct of elections, under the Edo State Local Government Electoral Law, and the State Independent Electoral Commission Establishment, (Re-enactment Law 2017 (as amended in 2022), to the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice they filed before the court.
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Justice Taiwo also made an order, restraining INEC and the EDOSIEC, from using the Voters’ Register for conducting the Local Government Council Elections in Edo State, proposed to hold on the 19th of April 2022 or any other day, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
The grouse of the plaintiffs is that EDSIEC had masterminded the reduction from 45 to 15 days, the period for the publication of notice of elections, to the date of conduct of elections into Local Government Councils in Edo State.
The judge in his ruling, agreed with counsel to the applicants, Joshua Musa (SAN), that the essence of the exparte motion, was to protect the subject matter in the motion on notice, and added that the applicants do not want to suffer irrevocable damages.
The Court adjourned till April 14, for a hearing of the motion for interlocutory injunction.
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
