The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by Ovie Omo-Agege, former deputy senate president, challenging the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as Delta State governor. In March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Oborevwori, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18. Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, other candidates, including 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), filed separate petitions before the governorship tribunal.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal by the APC and its candidate. The court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that the appeal lacked merit.
The court held that the APC did not prove that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2023.
It dismissed Omo-Agege’s contention that some of the result sheets that the INEC, relied upon to declare Oborevwori as the winner of the election, did not have serial numbers.
The court said that even if the total number of INEC forms that the Appellants complained about were removed, it would still not affect the margin of lead that was in Oborevwori’s favour.
It also held that the Appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law to warrant the setting aside of both the Court of Appeal judgement and the verdict of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
Consequently, the court dismissed the petition without cost.
