The All Progressives Congress (APC) did no wrong in granting its Edo State governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, waiver to contest its primary, an Edo State High Court has ruled.
Presiding judge of Edo High Court 6, sitting in Benin-City, Justice Emmanuel Ahamioje, dismissed the suit for ‘lacking merit’ and he described the matter as an ‘internal affair’ of the party.
He affirmed Pastor Ize-Iyamu as a duly registered member of APC in his Ward, saying he was qualified for the waiver.
The suit was filed by a factional deputy chairman of APC in the state, Kenneth Asekomhe, who was expelled for anti-party activities by the NWC of the party and three stalwarts of APC Benjamin Oghumu, Mathew Ogbebor and Unweni Nosa.
They are all loyalists of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Defendants in the suit APC; its suspended National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu insisted the court had no jurisdiction to meddle in the internal affairs of the party, in line with the Constitution of APC.
The presiding judge earlier refused to grant the exparte application by the allies of Obaseki, seeking to restrain APC from recognising the 2016 governorship candidate of the PDP (Ize-Iyamu), who defected to the party in December last year, as an aspirant on APC’s platform.
