The Appeal Court, Lagos Division, on Monday, reserved judgment in three separate appeals filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Kenneth Gbagi, and the Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Kennedy Pela, challenging the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as the governor of Delta State.
The three-member panel presided over by Justice Hamma Barka reserved judgment in the three appeals after taking submissions from counsel for all the parties.
Other members of the panel are Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole and Justice Hadiza Shagari.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the Governorship Candidate of PDP, Sheriff Oborevwori, as the winner of the governorship election in Delta State.
Oborevwori polled 360,234 votes to defeat Omo-Agege who scored 240,229.
But dissatisfied, the appellants challenged Oborevwori’s election.
The Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, had upheld Oborevwori’s election.
In its judgment, the three-member tribunal led by Justice C.H. Ahuchaogu dismissed Omo-Agege’s petition for lack of merit.
The tribunal also dismissed the petitions by LP’s Ken Pela and Kenneth Gbagi of the SDP for their inability to prove their allegations of overvoting, among others.
It held that the petitioners failed to prove allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act and overvoting beyond reasonable doubt.
On the issue of overvoting as alleged by Omo-Agege, the tribunal held that to prove the allegation, a BVAS report must be produced.
“Leave was granted to the petitioner to inspect BVAS but no BVAS report was provided. The tribunal wonders why the petitioners failed to produce the BVAS report.
“Tribunal agrees with the respondent’s argument. By Supreme Court judgment, BVAS is mandatory to prove over-voting.
“BVAS was not produced but they tried to use other documents. The petitioner cannot circumvent the BVAS, as the report of examination of the back-end server cannot replace the BVAS. This report is held to be irrelevant. Flowing from above, the report is inadmissible to prove over-voting,” the tribunal ruled.
