Appeal Court affirms Okowa’s victory ~ Truth Reporters

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday affirmed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as the winner of the March 9 governorship election in the State.

The appellate court upheld the judgement of the election tribunal which had earlier affirmed Okowa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the governor the winner of the March 9 election in the state.

Dissatisfied with INEC’s declaration, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Great Ogboru approached the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal where the tribunal dismissed his petition for lacking in merit.

Ogboru and his party had alleged that the election was marred with irregularities, over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the electoral act and guidelines, prayed the tribunal to nullify the election and order the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh exercise or declare him winner on the ground that he scored majority of lawful votes cast during that exercise.

After the tribunal’s verdict, the APC candidate went ahead to file an appeal.

The five-man panel of the Appeal Court of judges presided by Justice Uzo Ndukwe-Anyanwu upheld the decision of the tribunal and declared Okowa as the duly elected governor of Delta State.

In the unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Habeeb Abiru, the appellate court upheld the judgement of the tribunal which dismissed the petition of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Ogboru for lacking in merit.

The Appellate Court aligned with the tribunal judgement which had on Sept. 20, ruled that the APC candidate could not prove his allegations of over voting and other electoral irregularities leveled against Gov. Okowa and the PDP at the poll.