Delta: Uduaghan Elected Delta Gov – Ogboru May Head Back to Court

Posted by admin Delta, Governors, State News, Top Stories Friday, January 7th, 2011

Dr Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan has been elected the governor of Delta State in a race that was not as close as predicted.

In the official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Uduaghan defeated his closest rival, Chief Great Ogboru, the candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), by 276,795 to 138,244 votes.

INEC is expected to make a final declaration any moment from now.

Uduaghan will be sworn in two months after vacating the position as a result of an Appeal Court judgment nullifying the election that brought him to power in 2007.

Official results from 25 LGAs show Uduaghan won 14.

Ogboru had stormed INEC’s office in Asaba early this morning to protest the release of the results and condemned the electoral process.

He asked for forensic analysis of the ballot papers before the official results are released.

His supporters carried placards protesting the conduct of the election, and this temporarily put on hold the announcement of the remaining results before the security forces restored order.

The results in some wards in Ughelli North, where another candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege (RPN) comes from, were cancelled by INEC for violence and ballot-snatching.

Ogboru May Head Back to Court

One of the leading candidates in the Delta State court-ordered governorship election re-run, Chief Great Ogboru, has described the results of the exercise so far released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as amounting to monumental injustice and unacceptable.

The Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) candidate, who stormed the office of the commission in Asaba, the Delta State capital, to express his displeasure over the pattern of results being announced by INEC, hinted on his readiness to again seek legal redress should INEC fail to declare the result ultimately in his favour.

Even as the Commission was yet to announce the result for about four or five local government areas, as the results kept trickling in, Ogboru and his supporters had been quite ruffled by the fact that Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was ahead of him in the closely fought gubernatorial tussle.

The DPP candidate had initiated the legal suit that culminated in the November 9, 2010 appellate courtâ€™s verdict that quashed the April 14, 2007 election of Uduaghan and the subsequent order on INEC to conduct a fresh governorship election within three months.

-ThisDaywp_posts