Delta: Appeal Court reserves judgment in Ogboru’s appeal

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Monday reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by Chief Great Ogboru challenging the decision of Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the election of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

Ogboru, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), after the election of March 9, 2019 had approached the tribunal after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as Governor of Delta State.

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Dissatisfied with the decision of the tribunal, the appellant had approached the Court of Appeal praying it to set aside its decision and declare him as the winner of the said election.

A five man panel of the Appellate Court led by Justice Uzo Ndukwe-Anyanwu, on Monday, heard the appeal in Abuja and reserved judgment to a date that would be communicated to parties shortly after counsel adopted and argued their brief of arguments in the appeal.

The appellants in a 37 grounds of appeal filed by their counsel, Nicholson Ichekor, asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the entire judgment of the tribunal on the grounds that the tribunal erred in law when it dismissed their appeal for lacking in merit.

The three man panel of the governorship election panel led by Justice Suleiman Belgore had in September dismissed Ogboru and APC’s petition against the return of Governor Okowa on grounds that the petitioners failed to prove the cases of irregularities and malpractices claimed in their petition.

However, in the appeal against the decision of the tribunal, Ogboru and APC argued that the lower court erred in law when it relied on the issue of over voting instead of allocation of votes as canvassed in their petition to dismiss their petition.

However, in response to the appeal, Okowa and the PDP urged the Court of Appeal to dismiss Ogboru and APC’s appeal for being incompetent and unmeritorious.

In their brief of argument by Damien Dodo, SAN, and Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, for Okowa and PDP respectively, the respondents submitted that the appellants failed to prove their allegations of over voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

While the respondents claimed that they have led cogent, credible and reliable evidence to show that they won the governorship election held on March 9 in Delta State, they submitted that the appellants on the other hand failed to prove how their claims of over voting and non-compliance substantially affected the results of the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Okowa and PDP winner of the March 9 governorship election in Delta State having scored majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.

Justice Uzo Ndukwe-Anyanwu announced at the end of the counsel submissions that the date for its judgment will be communicated to the parties.