A federal high court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, has stopped Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, from participating in the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary.
Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, one of the PDP aspirants, filed the suit seeking exclusion of the governor from contesting in the PDP primary election rescheduled to hold on Thursday, June 25.
Ogbeide-Ihama said only aspirants who purchased the party’s nomination forms and were screened within the stipulated time should be allowed to contest in the primary.
Obaseki and his deputy Philip Shuaibu defected to the PDP just last Friday after Obaseki’s disqualification from the All Progressives Congress, the party under which he was elected in 2016.
PDP rescheduled its primaries from last Friday to June 23 to allow it screen Obaseki to fulfill elections formalities.The party also gave a waiver to Obaseki and Shuaibu to participate in the primary.
To further challenge Obaseki’s candidacy, Ihama also questioned the validity of Obaseki’s certificates – the same reason APC disqualified him.
In his ruling on Monday, EA Obile, the judge, granted Ogbeide-Ihama’s request.
The court also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to recognise the governor as an aspirant until the determination of the suit.
The eventual candidate of the PDP will face off against Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who won the APC governorship ticket at the party’s primary election on Monday.
