Benin High Court has declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Edo State, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, eligible to contest last week’s primaries.
The Court ruled that having registered as a member of the party, the waiver granted him was unnecessary.
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It dismissed the challenge filed by Edo APC Deputy Chairman and others as baseless and lacking in evidence having challenged the eligibility of Ize-Iyamu to represent the APC in elections over claims that he was not duly registered as a member.
The State High Court on Thursday dismissed the suit completely on the grounds that it was founded on assumptions, speculations, conjectures, and guesswork saying that issue of membership of a political party is a matter residing within the internal domain of the party and the court has no jurisdiction to interfere.
Counsel to the defendants including the APC, Adams Oshomhole, summed it up by quoting the Presiding Judge, Emmanuel Ahamojie, in his ruling, as saying that no iota of fact was cited to back the claims of the claimants that the candidate of the party failed to satisfy any requirement in his registration as a member of the party while counsel to the claimant, Santos Owotu, in agreeing with the court’s decision on the matter, says he will consult with his clients on the next line of action.
The Court held that the membership card presented by Ize-Iyamu conclusively shows that he is a member of the party, and those challenging it presented no convincing evidence to state otherwise and held that the membership of a party is an internal affair of the political party.
(Editor: Sola Jaiyesimi)
