Good afternoon my leaders, my brothers, my sisters, and the good people of Esan North East Constituency 2! Hope we are all having a wonderful day?
I think, is very expedient and important to clear the air and also enlighten the great people of Esan North East Constituency 2 and my Party (PDP) faithful that overwhelmingly voted and nominated me to fly the flag of our great party in the forthcoming Edo State House of Assembly come March 11 2023.
My dear constituents for the past few days, rumors and grapevine information have been going forth and back and some people have been very busy misinterpreting the Supreme Court cases to suit their ignorance and massage their egos.
Please be informed that the Supreme Court did not give judgment against the Legacy PDP nor against the New PDP, rather the apex court referred us all to the federal high court. This legal tussle and battle was necessitated because we believe in due process, the rule of law and that the choices of the people should and ought to be preserved.
Supreme Court ruled that the appeal by the legacy PDP failed because the issues being canvassed where not issues originating from the trial court and therefore the appeal failed and the cross appeal of the New PDP also failed because of lack of Merit.
You may wish to recall that the New PDP approached the Federal High Court in Benin City to declare their candidates as the authentic candidates of the PDP for the 2023 general election for the National and State Houses of Assembly in Edo State. The Federal High Court delivered its judgment on 27th September, 2022 in favour of the NEW PDP. Dissatisfied with that decision, we, the Legacy PDP appealed to the Court of Appeal against the said judgment and after hearing of the appeal, the Court of Appeal found that our appeal was meritorious and was consequently allowed. It however delivered a ruling on the objection raised by the NEW PDP on the issue of incomplete record (which were two missing documents filed by the PDP and the PDP Chairman) wherein the court agreed with them that the absence of those documents rubs the court of jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal and consequently struck out the appeal for that reason. Therefore, there were two decisions from the appeal, that is, the main Judgment which was in our favour and the ruling on jurisdiction which was in favour of the NEW PDP.
Peeved and confused by the two decisions, both parties (the Legacy Group and the NEW PDP) appealed against the decisions to the Supreme Court. The Legacy Group filed their appeal against the ruling on incomplete record and the decision of the Court of Appeal to sit on appeal over their own Judgment. They also filed an appeal against issues 2 & 3 which were resolved against them and issue 1 which was struck out on the ground that it did not emanate from the decision of the trial court.
On their part, the NEW PDP, the Chairman of the party and the PDP all filed their own Notices of Appeal against the main Judgment and the ruling granting the Legacy Group leave to appeal against the Judgment of the trial court which implied that they filed three appeals.
At the hearing of the appeal, the Supreme Court impressed upon the parties through their counsel to choose one each from their respective appeals as the appeal they shall argue and the decision in the one chosen shall bind the other appeals not chosen. On our behalf, our counsel inadvertently chose the appeal on ground 5 which the court of appeal had ruled did not emanate from the decision of the Federal High court while the NEW PDP’s counsel chose an appeal which was dead on arrival as their Notice of Appeal was defective. After the final hearing, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment and dismissed appeal filed by the Legacy Group on the ground that the appeal chosen dovetails on an issue which did not emanate from the decision of the Federal High Court and that of the New PDP on the ground that it lacked merit.
The legal implication of the supreme court’s decision is that both the New PDP and the Legacy PDP have to fall back on their respective Federal High Court Judgments which means that they are both standing on equal pedestal as there is no winner yet. The winner will now depend on the decision of the Court of Appeal in respect of the Justice Ekwo’s judgment in Abuja which was in our favour and is now pending for Judgment.
I am unable to decipher from the above as to how the decision of the Supreme Court which dismissed the appeals from both sides automatically validated the Governor’s Candidates as the authentic candidates of the party as against those of us from the Legacy PDP. It stands to reason that those who are peddling the false rumour are deliberately doing so in a bid to knock the facts askew.
I want to appeal to the good people of ENE constituency 2, all lovers of democracy and rule of law to keep faith with us as the windmill of justice grinds slowly, but with time justice will prevail. We must be rest assured that justice delayed is never Justice denied. They is light at the end of the tunnel.
Lastly, I must appreciate the leaders of legacy PDP that has kept fate with this struggle and have stood as men in the face of this injustice and broad day light robbery attempt on the people’s mandate. You are the real heroes of this struggle and we want to assure u, that the battle is a battle of no retreat no surrender! We will continue to push this to the last, as we still keep faith with the judiciary which is the last hope of the common man.
Thanks all and I believe we will celebrate together soon
Arc Thaddeus ME Irabor
Candidate EDHA representing
ENE constituency 2