Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved judgment in three separate appeals challenging the concurrent judgments that affirmed the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Governor of Delta State.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, announced that its verdict in the appeals filed by Mr. Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) would be delivered on a date that would be communicated to parties in the separate appeals.
Meanwhile, the apex court has up till January 22, 2024, to deliver its judgment in the matters since the 60 days stipulated by the constitution expires that date.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the March 18 governorship election in Delta State.
Not satisfied, the three separate appellants went to the 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 winners 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 the grounds Omo-Agege, a former Deputy President of the Senate, is seeking, is the nullification of Oborevwori’s election, as he posited that the election was not conducted in 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.
He subsequently urged the court to void results from the affected polling units and afterwards declare him the 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.
