17th December, 2015
The Appeal Court sitting in Benin on Wednesday reserved judgement in the appeal challenging the judgement of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal had on 26 October upheld the declaration of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the April 11 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Dissatisfied with the decision of the lower tribunal at Asaba, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and the All Progressive Congress APC, had approached the Appeal Court in a notice of appeal with petition number, CA/B/EPT / 2015, filed by their counsel, Chief Thomson Okpoko SAN. They are asking the court to set-aside the judgement of the tribunal and order a rerun election in the state.
In the 11 grounds appeal, the appellant averred that, “the learned justices erred in law when they failed to nullify the election due to substantial non compliance with the Electoral Act, INEC guidelines and over voting in 61% of the polling units in the state.”
The appellants also alleged a resort to manual accreditation instead of the mandatory use of card readers.
Counsel to Emerhor and the APC, Chief Okpoko (SAN) while adopting and relying on his written addresses, contended that the lower tribunal chose to ignore the preponderance of evidence before the court and urged the Appeal Court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal.
He also sought the outright dismissal of the cross appeal of the respondents as lacking in merit.
The counsel to first respondent (Okowa), Alex Iziyon (SAN); second respondent (PDP), Timothy Kehinde (SAN); and third respondent (INEC), Damian Dodo (SAN) urged the appeal court to dismiss the appeal with substantial cost against the petitioners, stating that the appeal lacks merit.
Chairman of the five-man panel of Appeal Court judges, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji who reserved judgement following the adoption of written addresses by counsels to the respective parties, stated that the date of the judgement will be communicated to the parties, while assuring them that justice will be done.