The All Progressives Congress (APC) Delta State and its
governorship candidate in the April 11 governorship election Olorogun O’tega
Emerhor has appealed the judgment of the Delta State Governorship Election
Petitions Tribunal, which affirmed the victory of the Peoples’ Democratic
Party’s (PDP) and its candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
In a suit filed by their lawyer, Chief Thompson Okpoko
(SAN), at the Appeal Court in Benin, the Edo State capital, APC and Emerhor
raised 11 grounds of appeal.
They prayed the appellate court to set aside the decision of
the tribunal. The appeal sought to prove that the tribunal committed legal
errors in its verdict, when it discarded their petitions and awarded victory to
the PDP and Okowa.
The appellants averred that the tribunal overlooked the
alleged infractions committed by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) in the election.
The appellants, among other grounds, averred “…that the
learned justices erred in law in resolving against the appellants that the
petition was incompetent on the grounds of non-compliance with the procedural
rule in Paragraph 4 (3)(b) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2010 (as
amended).
“That the learned justices misdirected themselves in law in
holding that the petitioners have not been able to displace the presumption
that the figure of the voters accredited for the governorship election
conducted in Delta State on April 11 2015 as stated in the election results
declared by INEC are less than the total number of votes returned in the
election.
“That the learned justices erred in law when, having held
that every voter that voted in the governorship election must have been
processed through the Card Reader, went on to hold that the petitioners have
not been able to prove that the governorship election held in Delta State on
April 11 was not held in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
“That the learned justices misdirected themselves in law
when they said there was no conclusive evidence that all those who were
accredited through the use of the Card Readers had their data uploaded to the server,
where the data used by the petitioners were downloaded.” It can be recalled
that Olorogun O’tega Emerhor never won a local government in the past election
and that was why he missed his chance of becoming a minister.
Comments
Post a Comment