FROM IKHILI EBALU, BENIN CITY
Edo State High Court sitting in Benin City has restrained the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, and the state government from going ahead with the planned local government by-election across 59 wards.
The Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice was also a party to the suit.
Justice Mary Itsueli, sitting as a vacation judge, granted the order, following an ex-parte motion brought to the court by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The PDP, through its counsels, Oluwole Uzzi, Michael Ekwemuka and P. W. Akwuen, in the suit marked: B/247M/2025, had prayed the court for leave to apply for judicial review of EDSIEC’s decision to conduct by-elections to fill councillorship positions in the affected wards.
The party argued that the councillors tenures remain valid until September 2026, making any attempt to declare their seats vacant unlawful.
Justice Itsueli, who held that the applicants had shown sufficient grounds for the court to intervene, also referred the matter to the Chief Judge of Edo State for reassignment to a regular court, fixing September 30 for the return date.
In the enrolment order sighted by our correspondent, PDP sought “an Order granting leave to the applicant to apply for judicial review of the decision of the first respondent to conduct election across 59 wards purportedly to fill vacancies to their legislative seats/offices of councillors sponsored by the applicant, when their respective tenures subsist until September, 2026.”
The PDP also asked the court to grant “an Order that the respondents stay further action and be restrained from conducting the election or taking further steps in connection with the planned local government by-election across 59 wards, particularly as it relates to the seats/offices of the duly elected councillors in their respective wards, pending the hearing and determination of the originating motion on notice for judicial review to be filed pursuant to the grant of leave.”
Having duly considered the application and submission of the counsels to the PDP, the court ordered that “the applicants be granted leave to apply for judicial review of the decision of the first respondent to conduct by-elections across 59 wards, purportedly to fill vacancies in the legislative seats/offices of councillors sponsored by the spplicant, when their respective tenures subsist until September, 2026.”
The court also ordered that the “respondents are to stay further actions and are restrained from conducting the election or taking further steps in connection with the planned by-election, particularly as it relates to the seats/offices of the duly elected councillors in their respective wards, pending the hearing and determination of the originating motion on notice for Judicial review to be filed pursuant to the grant of leave.”
This case has been referred to the Chief Judge for assignment to a regular court.
