43 candidates for the All Progressives Congress have been sued by the Peoples Democratic Party of Delta State for allegedly breaking the 2022 Electoral Act.
The plaintiff in Case No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1406/2022 requests that the court examine and interpret the combined provisions of Section 82(1), (2), (5), and (8) as well as other applicable laws in order to examine the actions and inactions of APC with regard to notices for the congress and primary elections that were served on INEC.
Fred Oghenesivbe, the executive assistant to the governor of Delta State for communication, said that by not strictly adhering to the conditions and time period for the holding of the party congress, the APC had willfully breached the relevant sections of the Electoral Act 2022.
The PDP is also requesting that the court declare all of the party’s candidates for the 2023 elections, including Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who is running for governor, Chief Ede Dafinone, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, Hon. Waive Ejiroghene Francis, and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi for the Senate. “The legal violations committed by the APC have now been subjected to legal interpretations and foreseeable resultant orders via a lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court Abuja, by PDP,” the speaker added.
The plaintiff is asking the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare all of the APC candidates in Delta State ineligible to run in the general elections in 2023.
The PDP is also requesting that the court declare all of the party’s candidates for the 2023 elections, including Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who is running for governor, Chief Ede Dafinone, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, Hon. Waive Ejiroghene Francis, and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi for the Senate.
The dates on which such notices were received, whether or not APC complied with the deadlines explicitly outlined in the aforementioned sections of the Electoral Act 2022, and, if not, whether or not to declare the congress, primaries, and candidacies of all APC candidates in Delta State, void and without any legal force, and whether or not to remove the APC logo from ballots in the State for the 2023 election.
E.V. Onojeghuo, the state’s APC publicity secretary, responded to the lawsuit by calling it “dead on arrival.”
This Delta State PDP lawsuit is doomed from the start because it is a fruitless exercise for a dying political party that is grasping at straws.
“First and foremost, the APC complied fully with the requirements of the current Electoral Act regarding the issuance of the pertinent notices for the conduct of our party primary. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, we have nothing to fear, he stated.
The APC leader claimed that the PDP’s actions were a result of insane desperation because the 1999 Constitution’s statute of limitations had already run on the matter. The APC is sure that the case will not have any stand in court.