The judgement of the Federal High Court Benin City, Edo State, which ordered the INEC to include candidates of Governor Godwin Obaseki as candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 election in its list, has continued to generate controversies in the among stakeholders who have been thrown into confusion over interpretation of the judgment.
A stakeholder, in his interpretation, was of the view that the judgement of the Federal High Court, Benin City, has no consequence on the status of the legacy candidates whose names have been published in the final lists of candidates by the INEC.
the stakeholder attempted a distinction between an order and a judgement of a court. According to him, “whether you call an order or judgement of a court, they are both executed by an order. Once an order or judgement is given by a court, only a higher court can vacate it, especially, after it has been acted upon.” He declared: “in this case, the PDP has acted on the order by sending the names of the Legacy PDP candidates to INEC and INEC has also acted on the order by publishing the names.
“A court of coordinate jurisdiction cannot in any guise vacate the order of another. Only the Court of Appeal, and ultimately, the Supreme Court, can undo the actions taken by the party and INEC in respect of the publication of the final lists of candidates.”
The stakeholder said that the Court of Appeal in Abuja has already ruled that the “issue of delegates remains the domestic affairs of the party”.
According to the stakeholder, “the issue of delegates before the Supreme Court has to do with the Legacy PDP delegates. The Obaseki-led group shot their delegates dead when they went to procure a judgement from the State High Court to validate their phantom primaries.
“The Court of Appeal in Benin threw away the judgement and the Supreme Court did not bother to listen to their appeal.
“This has effectively buried their delegates. Only valid delegates can elect valid candidates.
“It is either the Legacy PDP candidates remain or the Edo PDP will have no candidate for the 2023 general elections.” He argued that candidates of the Obaseki group can never be validated since they have no valid delegates. “The resultant litigation, if this mistake is made, will consume the party in Edo State and the presidential aspirant.”
The stakeholder added that the Federal High Court, Abuja, in a landmark judgement, affirmed the Legacy PDP delegates as the valid candidates of the party. This was not rejected by the Court of Appeal, he noted.
He pointed out that the issue before the Supreme Court is to determine whether the Federal High Court has jurisdiction to have heard the case. “Once the Supreme Court affirms it, the candidates’ cases in the lower courts will become mere academic exercises,” he said.
The Legacy PDP has filed an Appeal for stay of execution of the judgement today.
“It is standard law that once a notice of Appeal has been filed, the parties will maintain the status quo. No matter how flawed a court order or judgement is, you must take steps to mitigate it. So, the Legacy PDP candidates remain the valid candidates,” he declared.