A suit instituted at Federal High Court Abuja by some
aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking the
disqualification of the party’s candidate for Governor, Pastor Osagie
Ize-Iyamu, and candidate for Deputy Governor Mr Audu Ganiyu, in the forthcoming
governorship election in the State has been fixed for hearing.
Presiding Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who is sitting as a vacation
judge of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court has fixed hearing on the matter for August 24.
Before the adjournment, the judge granted an application for
substituted service of the court processes on the third and fourth defendants,
Ganiyu and Ize-Iyamu, respectively.
Two chieftains of the APC, Honourable Momoh Abdul-Razak and
Honourable Zibiri Muhizu, had sued the party candidates for Governor and Deputy
Governor in the September 19 governorship election in Edo State over alleged
perjury.
Defendants in the suit are the APC, the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), Audu Ganiyu and Osagie Ize-Iyamu as 1st, 2nd, 3rd
and 4th defendants, respectively.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to disqualify the
candidate for Deputy Governor, Ganiyu, from participating in the upcoming
election on account of having allegedly given false information to the
electoral commission to aid his qualification for the election slated for next
month.
Ganiyu, in the suit filed on July 10 by the plaintiffs’
lawyer, Mr Friday Nwosu, has also been accused of certificate forgery.
The plaintiffs prayed the court to annul the nomination of
Ize-iyamu as the APC candidate for Governor on account of running with an
allegedly unqualified candidate for Deputy Governor. They prayed the court for
another order restraining the APC from contesting the September 19 governorship
election upon the disqualification of the 3rd and 4th defendants.
In a 41 paragraph affidavit deposed to in support of the
suit, the plaintiffs said that Ganiyu contravened provisions of the electoral
laws by providing false information and lying on oath in his form CF 001 he
submitted to the INEC in support of his qualification for the September 19
governorship election in Edo State.
According to the deponent, Abdul-Razak, ‘there are several
irrevocable different and false information given by the 3rd defendant about
himself which cannot be true in his 2020 INEC form EC-9.
‘That I know as a fact that both the alleged name Audu Abudu
Ganiyu in his 2020 form EC-9, Audu Abudu Ganiyu in the WAEC (GCE) of December
1983, Audu Gani on the APC card No: 0054243, are not the name of the 3rd
defendant as fully and definitely confirmed by the statutory declaration of age
(exhibit 6A) that accompanied 3rd defendant’s 2019 form CF 001 personally deposed
to by the 3rd defendant at the Registry of the Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba
Lagos State on 24/5/1996.’
Abdul-Razak further claimed that the deputy governorship
candidate, who is a serving member of the Edo State House of Assembly
representing Etsako West Constituency, submitted a different name to INEC in
2020 from what he submitted in his 2015 and 2019 CF 001 forms.
He argued that the 3rd defendant had no time in the various
certificates paraded by him, attached any change of name to prove the names belong
to him.
The plaintiffs further accused the deputy governorship
candidate of superimposing the letter ‘A” on the testimonial issued by a state
authority or institution to read from originally Audu Ganiyu to Audu “A” Ganiyu
which he presented same to INEC in aid of his qualification for the election.
When the matter came up Monday, counsel to the plaintiffs
informed the court that while both 1st and 2nd defendants have been served with
the processes, the 3rd and 4th have not been served and as such he has brought
an application for substituted service.
Counsel to the 1st defendant, Dr Ehiogie West-Idahosa,
acknowledged service while there was no appearance for the INEC.
In a short ruling, Justice Taiwo granted the application as
prayed and ordered that the court processes including the hearing notice be
pasted on the Benin City residents of the 3rd and 4th defendants.
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