The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, has affirmed the victory of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This is just as the appellate court has also upheld the election of Senator James Manager of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Delta South Senatorial district, signaling an end of the road for the former governor of Delta State and APC’s senatorial candidate for Delta South, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The Court of Appeal also upturned the judgment of the election tribunal which had earlier sacked representative of Ethiope Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ben Igbakpa.
Tribune Online recalls that Senator Manager, who represented Delta South Senatorial district in the last February 23 National Assembly election, had mooted, shortly after the tribunal verdict in September, that he’s “in a small corner laughing” at the judgment which gave the order for a rerun of the election in 90 days.
“I am in a small corner laughing and I remain unperturbed. This judgment is certainly a miscarriage of justice and truly the tribunal erred in all fronts,” the candidate of the PDP had retorted on his official Facebook handle.
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His opponent, Dr Uduaghan, after the verdict by the three-man tribunal panel comprising Justice C.O Onyeaba, (Abia), Justice D. A. Oyegbemi (Nasarawa) and Justice S.N.J Usman (Kogi) through his Media Assistant, Monoyo Edon, had maintained that he won the election and would head to the Appeal Court to claim his mandate.
“While we are happy with the tribunal’s judgment which affirmed my party’s position that the election was rigged and characterized with electoral over voting, we are not entirely satisfied with the judgment as the tribunal ought to have deducted the excess illegal votes and declared me and my party rightful winner of the election.
“In view of this, we shall be challenging the tribunal’s judgment at the Appeal Court to declare us as the outight winner of the February 23rd, 2019 National Assembly Election for Delta South Senatorial District,” he had announced.
However, the Monday verdict from the appellate court has put paid to the electoral tussle as fifth-term Senator Manager was declared the winner of the February 23 national Assembly election, overriding the judgment of the tribunal which had called for a rerun within 90 days.
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