The electoral victory of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.
A five-member panel of the supreme court dismissed an appeal brought by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the party’s candidate, to contest the results of the state’s March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election, in a unanimous ruling.
The court determined that the appeal lacked merit in its lead judgement, which was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro.
According to the ruling, the APC and its candidate failed to provide evidence that the election was not conducted substantially in accordance with the Electoral Act of 2023.
The court dismissed Omo-Agege’s contention 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.
According to the court, 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.
It 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.
Consequently, it dismissed the petition without cost.
It will be recalled that INEC declared that Oborevwori of the PDP pollod 360, 234 votes to win the governorship election ahead of Omo-Agege of the APC who secured 240, 229 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the result, Omo-Agege, who is the immediate past Deputy President of the Senate, approached the court to nullify the outcome of the election.
