Federal High Court sitting in Benin, yesterday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and publish names of candidates produced by the Governor Godwin Obaseki faction of the Edo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as standard bearers for the party in the coming 2023 elections.

In the judgment, delivered by Justice S.M. Shuaibu, the court granted all reliefs sought by the plaintiff. The plaintiff include the party’s candidate for Edo South Senatorial District, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen; Sunny Aguebor for Oredo Federal Constituency, and the candidate for Akoko Edo Federal Constituency, Kabiru Adjoto, among others.

Among other reliefs, the plaintiff sought an order of court mandating the fourth defendant, INEC, to publish the names of the plaintiff as the validly elected candidates of the Edo PDP for the 2023 general elections.

The judge noted that based on past decisions by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, the state chapter of a political party is not empowered by law to conduct party primaries and that only the National Working Committee (NWC) of a political party has the power to conduct party primaries.

He said: “There is nothing before the honourable court to show that the primaries in which the 4th to 39th defendants participated was conducted by the National Working Committee of the PDP. Rather, their primaries were conducted by the Edo State chapter of the PDP.”

The judge held: “In my view, the power of INEC, under Section 84 of the Electoral Act, is limited to the monitoring of party primary elections and does not extend to preparing or declaring results of that election. This remains the law. “In the light of the foregoing, the fourth defendant, INEC, cannot rely on results prepared by the first defendant, Edo PDP.”