The Abuja court of appeal has upheld the nomination of Sherrif Oborevwori as the Delta State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The court overturned the judgement of a federal high court in Abuja that asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognize David Edevbie as the authentic candidate of the PDP for the guber poll.
Recall that Oborevwori, speaker of the Delta house of assembly, had polled 590 votes to defeat his closes rival, Edevbie, the commissioner for finance during the James Ibori administration, who got 113 votes.
Edevbie had rejected the outcome of the election and headed to the court to seek redress over alleged discrepancies in Oborevwori’s certificates.
Delivering judgement, the court of appeal held that the allegations against Oborevwori “were deeply rooted and founded in criminality”, noting that claims of that nature ought to have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt at the trial court.
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According to the appeal court, the lower court judge erred when he granted all the plaintiff’s reliefs without taking evidence of witnesses which would have included institutions that awarded certificates to Oborevwori.
The court added, “Facts were irreconcilably in conflict and could not have been resolved without oral evidence,” the appellate court held.
“There is no scintilla of evidence on record to prove that the appellant tendered forged certificate to the INEC.
“The decision of the lower court was perverse and it is accordingly set aside,” the court of appeal held.
“The appellant’s appeal is hereby allowed.”
Source: Cable