Monday Osayande
10 July 2009
Asaba — The retrial tribunal in Delta State yesterday upheld the election of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as the duly elected governor of the state in the April 14, 2007 election as it dismissed the petition by Mr. Peter Okocha, the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate over his unlawful exclusion.
The chairman of the tribunal, Justice B.S Muhammed whose judgement spanned about two and half hours said the petitioner in all its ramifications failed to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt and thereby dismissed it.
Justice Muhammed along with Justices N. Aganaba, O.O Majekodunmi, A.M Lamidu and other, declared that Mr. Okocha was excluded from the list of the governorship candidates in the state because he (Okocha) did not file his nomination paper within the stipulated 120 days as provided by the electoral law.
"It is clear that the petitioner did not prove that he was duly or lawfully nominated for the election from all evidence before this tribunal. We agreed that the nomination of a candidate is the responsibility of the party and that the decision of any party to choose anybody for election is sacrosanct but Okocha has a loose nomination because he was not validly nominated", he said. Justice Muhammed explained; "To be validly nominated, a candidate must show that he has been satisfactorily nominated by his party, this Okocha failed to do."
Also, he stressed that the petitioner did not prove that Charles Obule was cleared for the office of the deputy governor nor did he submit relevant particulars with INEC within the stipulated 120 days.
Although, Justice Muhammed agreed that Charles Obule was duly nominate by his party as proved by INEC, but what is left for us to decide is whether he withdrew from the race or whether it was John Itoro and not Charles Obule that was nominated for the office of the deputy governor in the election. However, the petitioner was given clean bill of health on the administrative panel of inquiry hanging on his neck before the election.
Counsel to Uduaghan, Kabiru Turaki (SAN), applauded the tribunal for a job well done, saying "the judgement for both parties is gratifying because you consider every single issue in your judgement, no winner, no vanquished because a lot of issues have been decided in favour of both parties and a lot decided against both parties. So it is a well researched judgement".
Obviously taken by surprise, Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), counsel to Okocha, who was represented, simply said "thank you sir" to the tribunal.
Reacting to the judgement, Chief Tony Ogbo, Senior Special Adviser to Okocha on Media (SSA), said "We will get a copy of the judgement, study it and take necessary action because this issue of relying on the fact that Okocha has no deputy and was not properly nominated and screened do not arise at all. By the time we do our home work, we will take action".
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