Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan

By  Adibe Emenyonu

The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Thursday struck out the appeal filed by Chief Great Ogboru of Democratic People’s Party (DPP) against the decision of the lower tribunal which upheld the declaration of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as the winner of the governorship re-run election held January 6, 2011 in Delta State.

The appellate Court however upheld the cross appeal by Uduaghan stating that there was no life issue to contend with by the appellant to arouse the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

The tribunal held that with the success of the cross appeal filed by the governor, the aone filed by Ogboru contesting the judgment of the lower tribunal had become an academic exercise and therefore struck it out.

Lead counsel to Uduaghan, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), had cited Section 180 (2) (2a) of the Constitution and the judgment by Justice Buba J of the Federal High court that “the seat for which there was a re-run had expired, a new election had taken place, a new tenure has commenced and a court cannot make an order that cannot be enforced either practically or legally,” and had asked the court not to allow the appeal.

In his reply, counsel to Ogboru and DPP, Prof. Joseph Mbadugha, argued that the judgment of Buba J. referred to by Olanipekun was not in anywhere referred to and therefore urged the court to discountenance any submission based on it.

In its judgment, the five-man panel, led by Justice Raphael Agbo, in a unanimous judgment held that INEC had organised the April 16, 2011 election after which the time of four years of Uduaghan had elapsed on May 29, 2011, saying the position of the Constitution on the issue was very clear that the winner would not commence a fresh tenure in office.

The court held that Ogboru participated in the April 16 governorship election in the state, even when his case was still before the Election Petitions Tribunal in Asaba.

Reacting to the ruling, the state Secretary to State Government (SSG), Mr. Macaulay Ozuorie, called on Ogboru and the opposition to team up with the governor to move the state forward.

He said if actually their intension was to serve the people of Delta State, they should work with the governor in the interest of the state.

In his reaction however, Turner Ogboru, younger brother of Great, said the DPP would test the matter  at the supreme court.

 -ThisDay

Posted by admin on Sep 23 2011. Filed under Delta, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry