The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, again dismissed an appeal filed by Arthur Osene and Anslem Ojezua against Edo State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo and four others.
Justice Hamma Barka held that the lower court was right in holding that the action is statute barred and, where a case is statute barred, the court has no jurisdiction to entertain it.
“Once the constitution provides a time for doing a thing that thing must be done within the time provided. The issue is a pre election matter under Section 285(9) of Nigerian constitution.
The Supreme Court has held that the cause of action in a pre election matter arises on the day the infraction was made. “A calculation here renders the action above the prescribed 14 days”, the court ruled.
The appellate court also dismissed the allegations of forgery of Permanent Voter’s Card as baseless and lacking in merit without proof.
“The burden of proving forgery is proof beyond reasonable doubt and there is no evidential basis to prove forgery in this case. The lower court finding that forgery has not been proved has not been disputed. The lower court is right that a voters card is not a requirement for qualification to contest the Office of Governor”, Justice Barka stated
The court unanimously resolved all issues against the appellants and reaffirmed Ighodalo as PDP’s validly nominated candidate in Edo State.
In addition, the court consequently struck out the appellants case for lacking in merit and awarded a cost of N3 million against the appellants accordingly.
The governorship election holds on 21 September.
