The Supreme Court has reserved the Judgment in the appeals by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Labour Party (LP), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the victory of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) had declared Oborevwori of the PDP with 360,234 votes as winner of the governorship election ahead of Omo-Agege of the APC, who secured 240,229 votes.
An appeal court judgment in November had affirmed his election with a three-member tribunal headed by Justice C.H. Ahuchaogu dismissed the petition filed by former Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege. Dissatisfied, the appellant approached the Supreme Court for reversal.
However, at proceedings, a five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro on Tuesday reserved an appeal for judgment, after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.
Specifically, the appellants, through their respective counsel, urged the Supreme Court to invalidate the November 24 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Lagos State, which dismissed their case for want of merit and affirmed Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the bona fide winner of the governorship contest.
They equally faulted an earlier judgment of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, which on September 29, affirmed Oborevwori’s election.
Omo-Agege, who is the immediate past Deputy President of the Senate, contended that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
He told the apex court that the results of the governorship election were not properly recorded at some polling units, adding that the forms that contained some of the recorded results did not have serial numbers.
While the SDP candidate, Gbagi, prayed the court to declare that Governor Oborevwori was not eligible to contest the election, his counterpart in the LP, Pela, urged the Supreme Court to nullify the entire election and declare a fresh one.
The apex court panel said it would communicate the judgment date to all the parties.
(The Guardian )
