‘How Okowa won at Delta elections petitions tribunal

FOR Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, it was double victory in the state capital, Asaba yesterday as the two petitions by Chief Great Ogboru of the Labour Party (LP) and Olorogun O’tega Emerhor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging his victory in the April 11, 2015 were dismissed by the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

There was spontaneous jubilation by people who thronged the major roads of the capital city singing, dancing and ululating, while some motorists hooted horns when news of the judgment which lasted over eight hours filtered out.

In a swift reaction, the state chairman of LP, Chief Tony Ezeagwu, rejected the judgment, vowing that his party will challenge it all the way to the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court.

His counterpart in the APC, Prophet Jones Erue, however, could not be reached for comments but a close party source however said that the party rejected the judgment and will contest it at the Appeal Court.

While the petitioners were ordered to pay the three respondents a sum N150,000.00 each, the tribunal chairman, Justice Nasir Gunmi dismissed the two petitions for woefully failing to prove the allegations of corruption and substantial breach of the Electoral Act and electoral guidelines beyond reasonable doubt.

Going by the result of the disputed election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on April 13 declared Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner having polled 724,680 votes while Ogboru was awarded 130,028 votes and Emerhor who came third scored 67,825 votes.

Ogboru and Emerhor who rejected the result subsequently petitioned the tribunal which commenced sitting on May13, claiming that the election was conducted in substantial breach of the Electoral Act extant guidelines.

Delivering judgment in petition number EPT/DT/GOV/23/2015 between Ogboru and Okowa, Justice Gunmi ruled that the petitioners failed to prove allegations of corrupt practices, breach of Electoral Act, over-voting and manipulation of election result.