Appeal Court Affirms Okowa, Masari as Duly Elected Governors

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja yesterday dismissed the appeal filed by candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Great Ogboru against the election of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as Governor of Delta State just as the Court in Kaduna ruled in favour of Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State.

While a five-man panel of the appellate court led by Justice Uzo Ndukwe-Anyanwu, dismissed Ogboru’s appeal on the grounds that it was “completely devoid of merit”, that in Kaduna ruled that the petition of Senator Yakubu Lado of the PDP also lacked merit.

The court accordingly upheld the decision of the Delta State and Katsina Stater Governorship Election Petition Tribunals which affirmed the declaration of Okowa and Masari as lawful winners of the March 9 governorship elections.

Ogboru and his party, APC had approached the appellate court to upturn the decision of the tribunal which returned Okowa for a second term in office.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okowa and PDP winner of the March 9 governorship election in Delta State, haven garnered majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.

Ogboru and his party had alleged over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act amongst other irregularities they claimed marred the governorship election in the state.

They called a total of 20 witnesses and tendered a total of 4,523 documents to prove their petition.

They then prayed the court to nullify Okowa’s election and declare them winner or in the alternative order INEC to conduct a fresh election in Delta State.

However, the three-man panel led by Justice Suleiman Belgore, in its judgment dismissed Ogboru and APC’s petition on grounds that the petitioners failed to prove the cases of irregularities and malpractices claimed in their petition.