Legal fireworks are set to begin in Delta as the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olorogun Barrister Kenneth Gbagi, has filed petition to the tribunal, challenging the outcome of the 2023 governorship election in the state.
In the petition, Gbagi is seeking the governorship election petition tribunal to disqualify all the candidates that participated in the election with him. The candidates include Sheriff Oborevwori of the PDP, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ovie Omo-Agege, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru and Labour Party (LP), Kennedy Pela.
The petition was filed on three grounds; One is non-qualification of the other candidates for the election, two, the election was not conducted in line with the electoral act and three, there were massive malpractices during the polls.
Arising from this, Gbagi is urging the tribunal to either declare him the governor-elect in the belief that he scored the majority of the lawful votes during the election, or in the alternative, nullify the entire election and order a fresh election. The petition was submitted on Thursday April 6, 2023.
He alleged that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provision of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and the electoral Act, 2022.
He equally alleged that the election was characterized by various irregularities including the non-qualification of the aforementioned governorship candidates and their deputies to contest the election.
He said the election was conducted with non-compliance to the provision of the law, insisting that all the respondents at the time of the election were not qualified to contest the election.
The state INEC Collation Officer, Onuwari Georgewill, a professor and the vice-chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, had declared Oborevwori winner with 360, 234 votes in Asaba.
Omo-Agege of APC came second with 240, 229 votes while Pela of LP got 48, 047 and Ogboru of APGA scored 11021 votes according to the results declared by INEC.
Gbagi’s legal team which filed the petition against the outcome of the election is led by Magaji Mato Ibrahim, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
