The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal brought before it by Ikie Aghwarianovwe, seeking the disqualification of Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous judgement by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court held that the appellant failed to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to Justice Agim, the mere fact that there were differentials in names does not amount to falsity.
In dismissing the appeal for lacking merit, the court ordered Ikie to pay N3 million each as costs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Governor.
Recall that Chief Ikie, a governorship aspirant of the PDP, had in October 2022 taken Oborevwori and the PDP to court, alleging that the former submitted false documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to aid his qualification for the 2019 House of Assembly election in Delta State.
While denying the allegation of forgery, Oborevwori and PDP objected that the suit was statute-barred, pointing out that documents submitted to INEC in 2018 towards the 2019 general election could not be grounds for disqualifying a candidate in 2023.
The trial court upheld the defendants’ objection, saying that Ikie failed to substantiate the allegations of forgery.
Dissatisfied, Ikue approached the Court of Appeal to appeal the judgment.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the trial court’s decision and resolved all the issues for determination in favour of Oborevwori.
