Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo delivered the judgment on Thursday, in response to a lawsuit filed by the disgruntled delegates, setting aside the primary election results.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that its primaries held on February 22, 2024, for the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State were not set aside and neither was any order given affecting its outcome.
It was earlier reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja had nullified the governorship primary election that selected Asue Ighodalo as the party's candidate.
The court ruled that the primary election, held on February 22, 2024, was invalid because 378 eligible delegates were unfairly excluded from participating in the voting process.
Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo delivered the judgment on Thursday, in response to a lawsuit filed by the disgruntled delegates, setting aside the primary election results.
The suit marked THC/ABJ/CS/165/2024 was instituted by one Hon Kelvin Mohammed in a representative capacity.
Justice Ekwo held that both the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the PDP Guidelines were grossly violated in the conduct of the primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium in Benin.
However, the party in a statement issued on Thursday by its Campaign Organisation explained that the claim in question and the judgment which arose therefrom did not in any shape or form invalidate or even challenge the outcome of the party’s primaries which produced the candidate of the PDP for the forthcoming election.
The statement reads in part, "Today, July 4, 2024, the Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Hon. Justice Ekwo entered a judgment in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/165 of 2024 (HON. KELVIN MOHAMMED & 2 ORS VS INEC & 3 ORS), which was filed by some disgruntled persons who claimed that they were authentic delegates wrongly excluded from participating in the choice of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo State.
"In a strange development and contrary to a long line of Appellate Courts' decision on the subject, the Hon. Justice held that the issue of ward congresses and choice of the delegates, is a justiciable matter which the court is entitled to look into.
"It must be noted that the Edo State PDP and the specific court involved in this matter have a history on exactly this same point in which the Appellate Court had cause to set aside similar decisions of that same Court and to restate the law that ward congresses and the choice of delegates are purely internal affairs of political parties outside the jurisdiction of any court.
"We are confident that this new decision will not survive the test of appeal and all necessary steps in that regard are already being actively pursued.
"Furthermore, it must be noted that the claim in question and the judgment which arose therefrom did not in any shape or form invalidate or even challenge the outcome of the party primaries which produced the candidate of the PDP for the forthcoming elections.
"The net result therefore is that contrary to the stories making the rounds, spread by mischief makers, the PDP primaries held on February 22, 2024, were not set aside and neither was any order given affecting the outcome of same.”
"Members and supporters of the PDP as well as the good people of Edo State are enjoined to remain calm and ignore the antics of mischief makers as the falsity of their assertion will be made clear in the fullness of time and upon release of the actual judgment for public consumption," the statement added.