Politics

Appeal Court orders Delta tribunal to hear Labour Party candidate’s petition

Published

8 months ago

August 31, 2023

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the Delta State governorship election petition tribunal to hear the suit filed by the Labour Party candidate in the state, Kennedy Pela.

Pela, who finished third in the March 18 election, is challenging the outcome of the election over alleged fraud and non-compliance with the electoral act in the conduct of the exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He also alleged that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege, were not qualified to take part in the election.

The LP candidate asked the tribunal to declare him as the winner of the election or order a fresh exercise in the state.

INEC had on March 20 declared Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the election after he polled 360,234 votes to defeat Ovie Omo-Agege who garnered 240,229 votes in the exercise.

Pela scored 48,027 votes to push Great Ogboru of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the fourth position with 11,021 votes.

The tribunal, however, dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, Pela approached the appellate court to set it aside.

In Thursday’s ruling, the appeal court ordered that the case file to be returned to the tribunal for fresh hearing.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now