Supreme Court Affirms Oborevwori as Governor of Delta of State
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal which had affirmed the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Governor of Delta State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Oborevwori, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the governorship election held on the 18th March, 2023.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, other candidates, including Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP), and Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), filed separate petition before the gubernatorial tribunal.
The Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, had on September 29th, upheld Oborevwori as the winner of the March 18th governorship election.
Also, the Court of Appeal affirmed Oborevwori’s election, having dismissed the appeal by the APC on November 24th, 2023.
Not satisfied with the dismissal of the petition, Omo-Agege and his party, the APC filed an appeal at Supreme Court, seeking to setting aside of the judgments of the two lower courts.
Omo-Agege had contended that the election was not conducted with the substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
He told the apex court that the results of the governorship election were not properly recorded at some polling units, adding that the forms that contained some of the recorded results did not have serial numbers.
But delivering judgment on the appeal, a 5-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Okoro dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and being incompetent.
In a unanimous decision, the panel held that it took time to look at the appeal and held that there was substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“The appeal lacks merit and the concurrent findings of the two lower costs are hereby affirmed.
“Appeal is hereby dismissed.
“Parties are to bear their respective costs,” Justice Okoro held.
