The judgment is coming seven years after an Edo State High Court presided by Justice P. Imoedemhe sacked the Commission over alleged improper conduct.
Based on a resolution of the State House of Assembly, the administration of Governor Osarhiemen Osunbor dissolved the Commission after they were accused of alleged improper conduct and sale of nomination forms to aspirants to Local Government Councils without recourse to their political parties.
Following the dissolution, members of the Commission approached the High Court in Benin and on the 14th November, 2007, Justice P. Imoedemhe delivered judgment and justified the sacking of the EDSIEC members, after the court insisted that the members erred by selling nomination forms to aspirants for the Local Government elections.
However, justice came way of the sacked EDSIEC members when the Appeal Court, in a unanimous decision delivered on January 16, 2014, by Justice Helen Moronkeji Ogunwumiju, upturned the judgement of the lower court.
The Court ordered the Edo state government to pay the sacked members their salaries and allowances from 19th June 2007 to the 10th of July 2010, when their tenure was supposed to expire.
“From the provisions of the constitution stated above, it goes without saying that the sale of nomination forms falls within the constitutional powers vested in the Appellants and there is no statute specifically prohibiting the Appellants from doing so. To argue contrary to this lucid fact would be a sheer waste of time.
“Also, what amounts to misconduct has been clearly stated by section 205(d) of the constitution. Clearly, sale of forms does not fall under the definition of misconduct under the section. The provisions of the constitution are clear and where the contents of the constitution are clear and unambiguous, no other secondary meaning should be ascribed to it, the court said.
The court however pointed out that it would be difficult for to declare the reinstatement of the EDSIEC members since their tenure expired since 2010, and one of them is late, adding “any order of this court reinstating the Appellants will be impotent.”
In applying the principles governing the measure of award of damages for wrongful termination of employment, the court ordered that “the Appellants are to be paid their salaries and allowances from 19th June 2007 to 10th July 2010. The judgment of the Edo state High Court delivered by Justice P. Imoedemhe in suit No B/216/OS/07 is hereby set aside. The Appeal is allowed.”
