The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Sheriff Oborevwori of the People Democratic Party (PDP) as Delta State governor.
Before the Supreme Court were three separate petitions by aggrieved candidates and their parties seeking to nullify the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Delta state governor.
The aggrieved petitioners included Ovie Omo-Agege, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP), and Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
On Friday, Justice John Okoro led the five-man panel of the apex court in his judgment dismissed the APC’s appeal against the election of the Oborevwori and upheld the decision of the lower courts.
Similarly, the apex Court while delivering judgment on an appeal by Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) held that there was no merit in the appeal against the PDP and its candidate and accordingly dismissed it.
In the same way, the appellate court in its judgment on Friday kicked out the appeal of Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous decision, the apex court threw out the three appeals for lacking in merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Oborevwori, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18.
The declaration of Oborevwori was subsequently affirmed by the governorship election petition tribunal and the court of appeal.
However, at the Supreme Court, the appellants, through their respective counsels, faulted the verdicts of the two lower courts.
Omo-Agege contended that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
He had 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.
Gbagi on the other hand had prayed the court to declare that Oborevwori was not eligible to contest the election.
Pela, the LP candidate, prayed the Supreme Court to nullify the entire election and order a fresh one.
However on Friday in judgment delivered by three justices of court of Supreme Court on behalf of the five-man panel, justice John Okoro, Mohammed Lawal Garuba and Uwani Abba Aji respectively dismissed the three appeals for lacking in merit
