Appeal Court Reverses Oborevwori’s Sacking as Delta PDP Guber Candidate

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, yesterday set aside the sack of Mr Sheriff Oborevwori as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.

The three-man panel, led by Justice Peter Ige, set aside Oborevwori’s sack on the grounds that the lower court erred in law in reaching the conclusion that Oborevwori was not qualified to participate in the governorship election on account of forgery and perjury.

Recall, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of a Federal High Court Abuja had on July 7, sacked Oborevwori as the candidate of the PDP on grounds of alleged forgery of his academic certificates and perjury. Justice Taiwo went ahead to order the PDP to submit the name of the person with the highest number of votes at the primary    election of the PDP held on March 25.

Oborevwori  who was dissatisfied with the said judgement approached the appellate court for an order setting aside his sack on the grounds that the court erred in law in ordering his removal as the candidate of  the PDP.

He based his appeal on the grounds that the suit at the lower court was wrongly initiated and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain it in the first place.

Justice Ige agreed with the appellant that the suit filed by David Edevbie was wrongly initiated because the allegations of criminal offences must be proven beyond affidavit evidence. The court held that failure of Edevbie to call relevant witnesses was fatal to the case.

The judgment noted that the plaintiff at the lower court ought to have called the relevant authorities from the institutions whose documents were forged.

The court on another issue held that Edevbie’s suit was premature because there was no reasonable cause of action.