A High Court in Benin has adjourned till Friday, June 19, to hear a suit seeking to stop Osagie Ize-Iyamu from contesting in the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election scheduled for June 22.
The presiding judge, Justice Emmanuel Ahamioje, who gave the defendants 24 hours to file their response, had earlier refused to grant an ex parte application seeking to restrain the APC from recognising Osagie Ize-Iyamu as an aspirant in the party’s governorship primaries.
The suit instituted in the court by Kenneth Asekomhe, the state factional deputy chairman of the party, Benjamin Oghumu, Mathew Ogbebor and Unweni Nosa, is challenging the membership waiver granted to Ize-Iyamu.
But the defendants in the suit – APC, embattled APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, and Osagie Ize-Iyamu – are saying the court has no jurisdiction to meddle in the internal affairs of the party.
At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, counsel to the first and second defendants Victor Ohiosumua told newsmen that they were supposed to take their first and second preliminary objections and then take the originating summons itself together.
