The Supreme Court has affirmed the election victory of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State.
In a unanimous judgement on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, to challenge the outcome of the march 18, 2023 governorship election.
The court, in its lead judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that the appeal lacked merit as the APC and its candidate did not prove that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2023.
The contention by Omo Agege that that some of the result sheets that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, relied upon to declare Oborevwori as the winner of the election, did not have serial numbers was also dismissed by the court.
The Apex court held that even if the total number of INEC forms that the Appellants complained about are removed, it would still not affect the margin of lead that was in Oborevwori’s favour.
The justices held that the Appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law to warrant the setting aside of both the Court of Appeal judgement and the verdict of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and thereafter dismissed the petition without cost.
