S’Court Affirms Sheriff Oborevwori’s Election as Delta Gov

*Dismisses Omo-Agege, Gbagi, Pela’s appeal for lacking merit

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Governor of Delta State.

The apex court in a unanimous judgment affirmed Oborevwori’s election shortly after it dismissed three separate appeals filed by Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP), challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election in Delta State.

The five-member panel held that the three appeals were incompetent and lacking in merit.

The panel led by Justice John Okoro held that it has no reason to depart from the two concurrent judgments of the tribunal and Court of Appeal.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Oborevwori of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), winner of the March 18 governorship election in Delta State.

Not satisfied, the three separate appellants went to governorship election tribunal to challenge the PDP’s victory. However, the tribunal dismissed the various petitions for lacking in merit, just as the appellate court held that Oborevwori was lawfully elected governor.

Still not satisfied, the individual appellants approached the Supreme Court to nullify the election of Oborevwori, conduct a fresh election or declare them winner of the governorship election.

While Oborevwori scored 360,234 votes to win the governorship election, his closest rival, Omo-Agege of the APC, polled 240,229 votes.

Amongst grounds Omo-Agege, a former Deputy President of the Senate, is seeking the nullification of Oborevwori’s election are that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with 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.

He subsequently urged the court to void results from the affected polling units and afterwards declare him authentic winner of the governorship poll, explaining that if the said votes were deducted he will then have majority of the lawful votes cast at the poll.

While the SDP candidate, Gbagi, prayed the court to declare that Governor Oborevwori was not eligible to contest the election, his counterpart in the LP, Pela, urged the Supreme Court to nullify the entire election and declare a fresh one.

At the end of arguments by lawyers representing parties in the appeal, Justice Okoro, announced that judgment has been reserved.