By Jackson Udeani – The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as governor of Delta State.
Justice Uwani Abba-Aji of the Appeal Court ruled Thursday that appeal by Okowa’s main opponent, Great Ogboru, challenging the earlier Election Tribunal judgment, lack merit.
Ogboru had challenged the judgment of the state’s Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
Ruling on Thursday Justice Uwani Abba-Aji said that Ogboru’s appeal lacked merit and upheld the tribunal ruling, which had thrown out the Labour Party’s candidate petition.
Earlier, Ogboru who was Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the election filed his petition before the tribunal challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party as winner of the poll.
In the petition, he alleged among other things, over-voting, arguing that the number of total votes recorded exceeded the number of voters accredited by the card readers.
He further argued that the conduct of the poll did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act, Ogboru asked the tribunal to nullify the results of the poll and order a rerun.
However, the tribunal sitting in Asaba dismissed the petition for lacking merit.
