*Fines Aghwarianovwe N6m
Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Supreme Court in Abuja, on Friday, dismissed a case of perjury brought against the Governor of Delta State, Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, for lacking in merit.
The apex court dismissed the appeal filed by Mr Ikie Aghwarianovwe, shortly after it upheld the current judgment of the Court of Appeal and Federal High Court, both in Delta State for conforming with the law.
Aghwarianovwe was seeking the disqualification of Oborevwori from the just concluded governorship election in Delta State, for allegedly supplying false information about his academic qualification and date of birth to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He had approached the apex court, after failing to get the two lower courts grant his relief seeking the disqualification of Oborevwori from the governorship race.
But, in a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, the five-member panel of justices held that Aghwarianovwe in his appeal failed to show that the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts were perverse.
The judgment written by Justice Adamu Jauro and read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Asaba division, delivered on May 5, 2023 which upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court, Asaba division, to the effect that Aghwarianovwe failed to prove his case and that Oborevwori was qualified to contest the last governorship election in the state.
Justice Jauro noted that none of the grounds of the appeal showed that the concurrent findings of the two lower courts were perverse.
He added: “After a very detailed consideration of every argument of all the parties on the various issues raised, I find that no matter how the instant appeal is viewed it is bound to fail.
“There is no saving grace for it. Right from the grounds of appeal, to the prominent issue of jurisdiction and now to the merit itself, the appeal was dead on arrival, with zero chance of success.
“Flowing from the foregoing, I find no merit in the instant appeal. I dismiss same,” he said and proceeded to affirm the earlier decisions of two lower courts.
Justice Jauro awarded a cost of N6 million against the appellant, to be paid at N3m each for the first and second respondents – PDP and Oborevwori.
Other members of the panel -Justices Mohammed Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Tijani Abubakar, Agim – agreed with the lead judgment.
