From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on three separate appeals that seek to nullify the election of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, decided after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.
The multiple appeals were filed before the court by the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in the governorship poll that was held in the state on March 18, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, as well as candidates of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Kenneth Gbaji and Ken Pela, respectively.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that Oborevwori of the PDP polled 360,234 votes to win the governorship election ahead of Omo-Agege of the APC, who secured 240,229 votes.
In their respective appeals, the appellants had urged the Supreme Court to invalidate the November 24 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Lagos State, which dismissed their case for want of merit and affirmed Oborevwori of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the bona fide winner of the governorship contest.
They equally faulted an earlier judgment of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, which on September 29, affirmed Oborevwori’s election.
Omo-Agege, who is the former Deputy President of the Senate, contended that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with 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.
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.
The Supreme Court said it would communicate the judgment date to all the parties.