Delta guber: Court sacks APC governorship candidate

A Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State capital, has sacked Great Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the recently concluded election in the State.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba in his ruling on Thursday nullified the candidature of Ogboru.

In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1085/ 2018, Victor Ochei, Ogboru’s contender, had challenged the declaration of Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the party in the September 2018 primary held in the state.

Through his lawyer, Ahmed Rahi (SAN), Ochei prayed the court to declare that the APC governorship primary election that held on September 30, 2018, was illegal on the grounds that unknown delegates were used for the exercise.

Ochei urged the court to, among other things, invalidate the results of the APC primaries, arguing that the list of delegates used at the primaries was not that envisaged by the consent judgment. He held that aspirants did not get any advanced list of delegates prior to the APC primaries.

Justice Dimgba ordered the cancellation of the APC governorship primaries that produced Great Ogboru, and granted four of the five reliefs sought by the plaintiff.

The Judge, however, refused to grant relief four.

“All the reliefs sought in this suit are similar with those for which Justice Tosin Adegoke pronounced judgement on, so reliefs 1, 2, 3, 5 are granted, but relief 4 is refused, because the governorship election is over and the relief is spent,” the Judge said.

The judge pointed out that the Federal High Court has one jurisdiction and, as such, cannot be seen giving discordant judgement, adding that “having considered the decisions reached by the Federal High Court in the case of Cyril Ogodo, which has similar reliefs, and the fact that some of the defendants in this suit are the same, the court has decided to follow the decisions arrived at in the Ogodo case.”

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