Tribunal gives Ogboru, Emerhor, nod to serve Okowa, INEC by pasting

The three-man tribunal in Asaba, Delta state, on Wednesday granted the governorship candidates of  the All Progressives Congress, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and the Labour Party, Chief Great Ogboru to serve Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the Governor-elect in the state, their motion ex-parte with by pasting.

Also, the tribunal granted the application of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), seeking to serve the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) via same method for unlawfully excluding Mr. Paul Isamde, the party’s governorship candidate from participating in the election.

Okowa and INEC were said to have been dodging being served with the writ of summon since the suits were instigated against them.

Ogboru and Emerhor dragged Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to court over the fraud, which they claimed, characterized the April 11 governorship election in the state.

In their motion ex-parte, dated 05/5/2015, 06/05/2015 and 11/05/2015, and marked EPT/DT/Gov/23/15, EPT/DT/Gov/32/15 and EPT/DT/Gov/09/15 respectively, they sought to upturn the mandate that produced Okowa.

Besides the three governorship cases, 37 other cases, bordering on National and the state’s House of Assembly, are pending at the tribunal.

In their separate arguments at the inaugural sitting of the tribunal in High Court 3, in Asaba yesterday, Ogboru’s counsel, Ediri Diejomooh, supported by J.A. Omolose (counsel to Emerhor) and Kehinde Edun (counsel to Isamade), averred that Okowa had been elusive, even as INEC had been hard to pin down.

Supported by eight paragraph affidavit each, backed with written addresses and an Exhibit, tagged ‘A’, they prayed the tribunal to grant them the leave to serve Okowa and INEC by pasting it at their doorpost.

Having considered their applications and expressed displeasure that the defendants – Senator Okowa, the PDP and INEC, could not be reached, the tribunal chairman, Nashiru Gummi, declared their appeal as “meritorious.”

He therefore ruled that “All originating processes should be served them on the door of the 1st respondent (Okowa) at Owa-Alero in Ika North East Local Government Area of the state (his home town) and at his campaign secretariat at the Core-Area, along Anwai Road, in Asaba, before the next sitting date.”