Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, fixed September 19 for hearing a suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking the disqualification of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Edo State, Asue Ighodalo.
The judge fixed the date for the hearing of all pending applications after lawyers to the parties in the suit reached an agreement for the adjournment to allow PDP’s counsel, Oyetola Atoyebi, (SAN), to respond to the plaintiff’s amended originating summons.
The APC in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1001/2024 sought an order of mandatory injunction directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately remove from its online portal and ballot documents Ighodalo and his party’s names for alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, among others.
On its part, INEC urged the court to dismiss the suit.
The commission, in its counter affidavit deposed to by Hussaini Abdullahi, a staff in the Legal Services Department, said Ighodalo is the PDP’s nominated candidate for the September 21 poll.
However, the APC in a motion on notice filed on August 30, sought the leave of the court to amend its originating summons.
Part of the prayers sought was an order granting leave for the striking out of Ighodalo’s name from the suit.
The APC argued that the amendment was to remove irrelevant references and to meet the purpose of the suit which is to seek the determination of INEC’s statutory power to disqualify an erring political party under Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act, 2022, and in pursuance of the plaintiff’s right of action as guaranteed by Section 285(14)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
But in a preliminary objection filed by Ken Mozia (SAN) on Ighodalo’s behalf, the lawyer sought an order striking out the APC’s motion on notice.
Mozia, in his two-ground argument, said the court had no jurisdiction to hear the motion for amendment when there is a pending preliminary objection.
He also argued that the proposed reliefs sought to be introduced by the APC’s “application are statute-barred.”
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