The Federal High Court in Abuja has approved service through substituted means in the suit seeking an order disqualifying Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming September 19, 2020, Edo State.
The order for substituted means was issued by Justice Taiwo on August 18, 2020, but our correspondent saw the certified true copy of the enrolled order on Thursday.
In the order issued at the instance of the plaintiff, Charles Ude, who is a member of the APC, Justice Taiwo directed that a former Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, a former acting Chairman of the party, Victor Giadom, Hilliard Eta, and Ize-Iyamu, be served the suit through the pasting of the court documents at the entrance gate of the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
While Oshimhole is the 2nd defendant in the suit, the rest of Giadom, Eta and Ize-Iyamu are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th respectively.
The APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, joined as the 1st and the 5th defendants, had been previously served by the plaintiff.
Justice Taiwo, after ordering that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th defendants be served through substituted means, adjourned till September 1.
The plaintiff, Ude, is in his suit, seeking the disqualification Ize-Iyamu’s nomination as the APC’s candidate in the forthcoming September 10, 2020 governorship election in Edo State on the grounds that June 22, 2020, primary election which produced him as candidate was not recognised by the then court-recognised acting National Chairman of the party, Victor Giadom.
Ude contended that the former National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, was suspended as a member of the party as such lost the power to act in that capacity as of the time he “floated” the committee to screen the party’s governorship aspirants in Edo State and announced the June 22, 2020 primaries that produced Ize-Iyamu as the candidate.
He also argued that Giadom who was appointed the then Acting National Chairman of the party via a court order had written the Independent National Electoral Commission informing the commission of the party’s decision to postpone the Edo State governorship primary election which the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee had scheduled for June 22, 2020.