The Court of Appeal, Abuja has dismissed a pre-election appeal filed by Chief Ikie Aghwarianovwe seeking the disqualification of the Delta State Governor elect, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori.
Ikie had filed a suit alleging Oborevwori submitted false documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He said in the suit filed in September 2022 that the false documents was to aid his qualification for the 2019 House of assembly election in Delta State.
Chief Ikie further claimed that as a result of the alleged forged documents, Rt. Hon. Oborevwori was not qualified to contest the Delta State 2023 gubernatorial election.
The suit was initially assigned to the Hon. Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, but subsequently transferred to Asaba, Delta State.
In the course of the trial in Delta State, Oborevwori and his party, Peoples Democratic Party, in addition to denying the allegation of forgery, also raised objection that the suit is statute barred as documents submitted to INEC in 2018 towards the 2019 general election cannot be a ground for disqualification of a candidate in 2023.
The trial court upheld the Defendants’ objection and went further to pronounce that Chief Ikie failed woefully to substantiate the allegations of forgery.
Aggrieved, Ikie appealed to the Court of Appeal, sitting in Benin City.
In a unanimous judgment, the court, with Honourable Justice Peter Olabisi Ige sitting in Abuja delivering the leading judgment, agreed with the trial court and resolved all the issues for determination in favour of Oborevwori.
The court specifically found that Ikie’s case is moribund and cannot be revived under any guise.
The Court of Appeal came down heavily on the Appellant for alleging falsification without calling the institutions that issued the certificates to Oborevwori.
On the whole, the penultimate court dismissed the appeal and ordered Chief Ikie to pay costs of N1 million each in favour of PDP and Oborevwori.
