9th November, 2010
With just few months to a general election in Nigeria, an Appeal Court in Benin, Edo State has ordered a fresh governorship election in oil-rich Delta State to determine the real winner of the 2007 election. The poll, the court said should be conducted within 90 days. Nigeria is poised for a new general election next year April.
The court , which read the verdict till about 7 p.m Tuesday night, annulled the election of the incumbent Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, on grounds of electoral malpractices following the appeal by the candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in the 2007 election, Chief Great Ogboru.
Chief Ogboru had sued Dr. Uduaghan, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at a Federal High Court in Asaba, Delta State Capital alleging that the elction was rigged in favour of Uduaghan and the PDP. But the court delivered a judgement in favour of Uduaghan, ruling that he won the election having scored more votes.
Dissatisfied with the court’s ruling, Chief Ogboru filed an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in Benin City the Edo State capital where a five-man panel of justices ruled that ‘the election was characterized with a lot of irregularities.’
In a unanimous judgement the court said: “After looking at the submissions of counsel to both parties and the submission by INEC counsel it was obvious that the election was characterized with a lot of irregularities.
“There were a lot of election malpractices by the umpire in favour of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party which placed undue advantage on him and his party at the detriment of other contestants in the election.â€
Last month on 15 October, another appeal court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State, sacked the governor of Ekiti state, Segun Oni and declared Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, as the legitimate governor. Fayemi was sworn in a few days later. The Appeal court is also set to resolve the governorship dispute in Osun State of Nigeria, between the incumbent governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP and the ACN candidate, Rauf Aregbesola. All the disputes arose over the 2007 elections, described by many observers as the worst election ever conducted by Nigeria.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 P.M.News