The Edo State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City struck out the petition of the APC Edo South Senatorial candidate, and its Mr Valentine Asuen against the Labour Party and its candidate for lack of deligent prosecution.
In a Judgement passed by the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Yusef Ubale Mohammed held that Mr Asuen and his party APC abandoned their petition by filing a pre-hearing application on the 2nd respondent in a breath of time. From the Tribunal, this action by APC and Hon. Asuen simply comes with an implication that they have abandoned their petition and it is therefore struck out. Looking at the petition at hand, the three-man panel ruled that the petition was “Incompetent and had no iota of merit and has no leg to stand”. Therefore, the petition was unanimously dismissed once again.
The Parties in suit number EPT/ED/SEN/01/2023 are the APC, its candidate Honourable Valentine Asuen (Petitioners), the INEC, The Labour Party, and its Candidate Sen. Neda Imasuen. All as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd respondents respectively. Earlier on, the 3 Man Panel had settled and resolved the non-qualification of the 3rd respondent (Sen. Imasuen) against the petitioners, claiming that the issue was a pre-election matter that should have been challenged at the Federal High Court before now.
According to the Tribunal, it is ruled that Sen. Imaseun is indeed a citizen of Nigeria in as much the petitioners failed to prove and present Sen. Imaseun’s alleged USA international Passport and his Oath of Allegiance. INEC had announced Sen. Imaseun as the winner of the senatorial election in Edo State. The Labour Party candidate Sen. Imaseun defeated PDP’s Mattew Iduoriyekemwen and Hon. Valentine Asuen who were second and third respectively at the election.
Showing a dissatisfactory attitude, Mr. Asuen of APC approached the Tribunal in a bid to challenge the outcome of the election on the ground that Sen. Imaseun was not a qualified candidate at the time the election was heard. He also claimed that Sen. Imaseun failed to score the highest Lawful votes during the election and that Sen. Imaseun did not have his name in the Labour Party’s form that was submitted to Inec.
With all said and done, APC and their candidate Hon. Valentine Asuen have been smashed by the court and the Labour Party’s Sen. Imaseun remains the winner of the National Assembly in Edo senatorial District.