Edo guber: Imansuangbon drags Akpata to Appeal Court over LP’s nomination

A former governorship aspirant of the Labour Party (LP), Kenneth Imansuangbon, has dragged the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the Edo election, Barr. Olumide Akpata, to the Court of Appeal, apparently dissatisfied with the judgments of a Benin High Court and Federal High Court Abuja, respectively.

Also joined in the suit before the Appellate Court is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Recall that Justice Babatunde Quadri of the High Court in Benin and Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court Abuja had dismissed Imansuangbon’s applications on the 15th and 22nd of July, 2024, respectively.

Justice Quadri declared in his ruling that Imansuangbon’s lawsuit was premature and without substantial evidence to support its claims.

The Court, therefore, upheld Olumide Akpata’s position as the LP’s gubernatorial candidate for the September 21st Edo governorship election.

But in a notice before the Appellate Court Abuja with suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/472/2024, Imansuangbon stated that “the learned trial judge erred in law and arrived at a perverse decision occasioning a miscarriage of justice to the plaintiff/appellant when he dismissed the plaintiff/appellant’s suit on the strength of the 1st defendant/respondent’s contention in his preliminary objection at the lower court.

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“That the suit was statute-barred, without considering Section 285(13A) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fifth Alteration) Act, (No. 10), 2023, to which the attention of the lower court was drawn at the hearing of the suit.”

Particulars of the ground being that “the learned trial judge found as a fact in his decision that the letter forwarding the personal particulars of the 1st and 2nd defendants/respondents as in INEC Form EC9 to the 4th defendant/respondent (the Independent National Electoral Commission) was received by the 4th defendant/respondent on the 24th of March, 2024.”

Also, that “the learned trial judge further found as a fact that the commencement date of computation thereof, of time allowed for filing of pre-election matters in the circumstance, was the 24th of March, 2024.

“A simple arithmetical computation of the 14 days provided for under the law, from the date of submission of the said INEC Form EC9 of the 1st and 2nd defendants/respondents (that’s 24th of March, 2024), to the 12th of April, 2024, when the plaintiff/appellant filed his suit, reveals a total number of 18 days in between.”

Imansuangbon is seeking an order allowing the appeal; an order setting aside the decision of the lower court; and an order directing the 3rd defendant/respondent to immediately issue a certificate of return to the plaintiff/appellant as winner of the primary election organised on Friday, 23rd February, 2024.

Reliefs that Imansuangbon sought include an “order allowing the appeal; an order setting aside the decision of the lower court; an order striking out all the processes filed by the 1st defendant at the trial court; an order directing the 2nd defendant to immediately issue a certificate of return to the plaintiff as the winner of the primary election organised on Friday, 23rd February, 2024; and an order directing, commanding, or otherwise mandating the 2nd defendant to submit, forward, or otherwise transmit the plaintiff’s name to the 3rd defendant as the winner of the primary election.”