An appellate court in Abuja has upheld the election of the Delta State governor stating that the case brought to it by the opposition lacked merit.
Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the victory of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa while also dismissing the appeal filed by Chief Great Ogboru, the Labour Party’s (LP) governorship candidate in 2015 governorship election in Delta state.
In a unanimous judgment, a five-man panel of Justices of the appellate court led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, upheld the verdict of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had on October 24, affirmed Okowa’s election.
The appellate court said the tribunal was right when it held that the petitioner failed to prove that the governorship election was characterised by over-voting and manifest corrupt practices.
Besides, the appeal court panel maintained that Ogboru could not prove that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance to both the Electoral Act, 2010, and the Election Guidelines and Manual that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, issued for the purpose of the election.
“Where in election petition, there are allegations of irregularities and corrupt practices, the allegation must be proved beyond every reasonable doubt”, the court held.
It stressed that a petitioner challenging the outcome of an election on ground of irregularity, must show that such irregularity substantially affected the outcome of the election.
More so, the appellate court held that Ogboru failed to prove that but for the alleged corrupt practices, he would have won the Delta State governorship election.
Consequently, the appeal was dismissed for want of merit.