In the early hours of Friday, March 20, a High Court sitting in Benin sacked the elected chairman of Esan South- East local government, Victor Emuankhagbon and ordered to refund all the money so far paid to him while in office as chairman of the council.
Emuankhagbon was sacked following a petition filed by Peter Aguele challenging the conduct of January 24, 2018 local government primary election that produced the sacked chairman as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Aguele who is also a member of the APC had approached the Court that he was the duly elected candidate of the party for the local government election.
While Aguele argued that he emerged candidate through direct primary, the sacked chairman averred that he emerged the candidate through consensus.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Daniel Okungbowa, held that the petitioner is the rightful candidate of the party for the election, having emerged through direct primary.
He however, ordered that the defendant should stop parading himself as the chairman of the council, and that he should refund all the money so far paid to him while in office as chairman of the council in the last two years to the treasury of the council.
He also ordered that the petitioner should be paid all the money and entitlements due to him since 2018 as the rightful candidate and the elected chairman of the council.
Reacting to the judgment, Peter Aguele, commended the judiciary for being the last hope of the common man.
