The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the decision of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Asaba which dismissed a petition filed by the 2023 governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Ken Pela, against the election of the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori.
The appellate court held that the Tribunal’s dismissal of the case before the main hearing was null and void.
The appellate court’s decision paves the way for a full hearing of the petition by the Tribunal, according to Pela’s legal team.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the People’s Democratic party’s candidate, Oborevwori, as the winner of the Guber poll with 360,234 votes while Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Party came second with 240,229 votes and Pela garnered 48,027 votes.
Disagreeing with the declaration by INEC, Pela had approached the Tribunal challenging the election of the incumbent governor.
The grounds of his petitions bordered on non-qualification, accusing the governor of certificate forgery as well as alleged non-compliance to the Electoral Act by INEC in view of the alleged blank polling unit results uploaded to and downloaded from the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IRev).
Those joined as respondents in the petition marked EPT/DL/GOV/01/23, were INEC, Governor Oborevwori, his Deputy, Monday Onyeme and the People’s Democratic party.
But at the pre-hearing stage, the lead counsel to Oborevwori and Onyeme, Damian Dodo SAN, had urged the Tribunal to dismiss the LP’s petition for being abandoned by petitioners.
He had argued that the petitioner’s failure to apply for a pre-hearing notice within time meant his petition was incompetent and ought to be thrown out.
The media unit of the Delta State Government claimed in a statement on July 6 that the chairperson of the tribunal’s panel, C.H Ahuchaogu, said “the petition was incompetent and a flagrant violation of paragraph 18 subsection one of the fourth schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.
“There is merit in the application seeking to dismiss this petition and accordingly, (the) petition, EPT/DL/GOV/01/2023, is hereby dismissed.”
But Pela instituted an appeal (CA/AS/EP/GOV/DL/04/23) before the Court of Appeal saying the Tribunal erred in law by dismissing his petition without hearing and determining it.
On Thursday, the Appellate court agreed with the petitioner’s submission, saying that the decision of the Tribunal dismissing his petition is null and void.
Reacting after the court rose, Adams.M told THE WHISTLER that the petition of his client at the Tribunal was still on course as he will continue with his case.
“I thank God for today. We are heading back to the Tribunal. We are continuing from where we stopped,” he said.
On how the LP can prove its case knowing that the 180 days timeline would elapse in about two weeks time, the legal team said they would strategize to beat the deadline.
“Within the next few days, they should set up a panel for the Tribunal.
“By the special grace of God, we have the strategies that we will try to adopt to speed up the process so that we are within time. I think he has a very strong case at the Tribunal but it is left for the judges to decide,” Pela’s legal team said.