DELTA: Elections Tribunal to commence sitting on Monday

Aggrieved candidates in the 2019 general elections in Delta State will from Monday begin to know the outcome of their petitions when the Delta State Elections Petitions Tribunal commences sitting.

According to secretary of the tribunal, Ahmed Gusau, while addressing newsmen in Asaba, a total of 51 petitions have been received including the one by Great Ogboru, the defeated governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the return of the incumbent governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the March 9 polls.

Gusau also added that some of the petition applications by the aggrieved candidates had already been granted against various respondents at the preliminary stage.

He disclosed further that the tribunal was at its preliminary stage of serving all the respondents.

“Once it is served, it is as good as the person was served personally. It is posted at the party’s secretary and the time starts counting from when the order was served,” he explained.

Read also: Ademola Adeleke is qualified to contest for governor, Appeal Court rules

The tribunal will commence sitting days after Great Ogboru, the Delta State governorship candidate of the APC at the recently concluded election held in the state was sacked by a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba.

The court presided over by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled in favour of a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1085/ 2018, filed by Victor Ochei, challenging the declaration of Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the APC during the September 2018 primary held in the state.

In his suit, Ochei, through his lawyer, Ahmed Rahi (SAN), prayed the court to declare the September 2018 primary illegal on the grounds that unknown delegates were engaged during the process.

Ochie’s suit further held that aspirants did not get any advanced list of delegates prior to the APC primaries, even as he further prayed the court to invalidate the results of the APC primaries, arguing that the list of delegates used at the primaries was not that envisaged by the consent judgment.

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