The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta State has challenged the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the State before the Election Petition Tribunal.
The party asked the Tribunal to void the declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Sheriff Oborevwori, as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), adding that for Delta State to make progress, an atmosphere of renewed honesty and purposeful character must reign and be allowed to exist.
“This is why we are maintaining three basic grounds stating that all the other parties and their candidates are not qualified.
“Secondly, the election itself was not conducted in line with the Electoral Act 2022 as amended and other statutory provisions.
“And thirdly, it was marred by massive rigging and other electoral malpractices.
“We maintain that those who attempted to contest in the election are not qualified for the race,” the SDP governorship candidate, Kenneth Gbagi, said.
He added that its (SDP) prayer was to “remove persons who have no business contesting governorship election in the state. Delta State needs a renewed atmosphere of honesty, and purposeful character.”
He continues: “In the election, there were lots of malpractice, vote-buying, food being cooked for people, wrappers being bought for them, all of these are part of what the Electoral Act spelt out to be a crime. My petition has encompassed all of that and I believe strongly that the judiciary would do what they ought to do.
“If you declare a result that has nothing to do with the Bimodal Voters Verification System, BVAS, the result stands cancelled. The fact will speak for itself. Maybe people thought that it is business as usual, we did not go into the election for a joke, we meant what we wanted to do, and we planned for it.”
The petition signed by the SDP governorship candidate, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, stated that “we are contending that as at the time of the election, Oborevwori was not qualified to run for the office of governor and also did not meet the requirement to be elected and returned by majority of lawful votes.
Gbagi was contending that aside Oborevwori, other candidates, including Ovie Omo-Agege Gbagi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Great Ogboru of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) respectively including Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) were also not qualified to run for the office of governor in the state.
The SDP candidate contended that Oborebwori in an attempt to meet the constitutional requirements of eligibility for the 2023 governorship election, presented a fake Declaration of Age/Affidavit in support of personal particulars in Form C.F.001.
He also asked the Tribunal to declare him as the only qualified candidate and nullify the certificate of return issued by INEC to Oborevwori and order INEC to issue a fresh certificate of return to him as winner of the election.
In the alternative, Gbagi also prayed the Tribunal to order a fresh election due to irregularities that characterized the election and non-compliance to the election guideline on the use of the BVAS.
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