S’Court rejects suit seeking Oborevwori’s sack, fines appellant N6m

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Ikie Aghwarianovwe seeking the disqualification of Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, for allegedly supplying false information about his academic qualification and date of birth to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The presiding judge, Justice Adamu Jauro, in a judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim on Friday, July 7, 2023, dismissed the suit.

The five-member panel of the apex court was unanimous in holding that Aghwarianovwe’s appeal failed because he failed to show that the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts were perverse.

It noted that none of the grounds of the appeal showed that the concurrent findings of the two lower courts were perversed.

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Justice Jauro said: “After a very detailed consideration of every argument of all the parties on the various issues raised, I find that no matter how the instant appeal is viewed it is bound to fail.

“There is no saving grace for it, right from the grounds of appeal, to the prominent issue of jurisdiction and now to the merit itself, the appeal was dead on arrival, with zero chance of success.

“Flowing from the foregoing, I find no merit in the instant appeal. I dismiss same.”

The judge also awarded a cost of N6 million against the appellant, to be paid at N3 million each for the first and second respondents – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Oborevwori.

The Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, had earlier held that Aghwarianovwe failed to prove his case and that Oborevwori was qualified to contest the last governorship election in the state.

The Star