Emerhor/APC Appeals Tribunal Judgement; Cites 11 grounds of Appeal

Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, the APC Delta State governorship candidate in the April 11 general elections and the party have on Friday November 13, 2015 filed a joint at the appeal court in the Benin judicial division  holden at Benin City appealing the judgment of the governorship election tribunal that sat in Asaba, which on October 26th 2015 ruled against their petition challenging the declaration of Governor Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as governor of Delta State.

In the notice of appeal with petitions’ No. CA/B/EPT / 2015 filed at 3:15pm by Emerhor counsel Chief Thomson Okpoko SAN, stated that: “the appellants being dissatisfied with the decision of the Governorship Election Tribunal sitting at Asaba, Delta State contained in judgment delivered on 26th day of October, 2015 do hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal, Benin City upon the grounds set out in paragraph 3 and will at the hearing of the appeal seek the reliefs set out.”

The appeal notice went further to establish 11 grounds of dissatisfaction with the judgment of the tribunal among which were: “That the Learned Justices erred in law in resolving against the appellants that the Petition was incompetent on the ground of non-compliance with the procedural rule in paragraph 4 (3)(b) of the 1st schedule to the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

That the Learned Justices misdirected themselves in law in holding that the petitioners have not been able to displace the  presumption that the figure of the voters accredited for the governorship election conducted in Delta State on April 11 2015 are stated in the election results declared by INEC are less than the total number of votes returned in the election.

That the Learned Justices erred in law when having held that every voter that voted during the Governorship election must have been processed through the card reader went on to hold that the Petitioners have not been able to prove that the Governorship election held in Delta State on April 11 2015 was not held in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

That the Learned Justices misdirected themselves in law when they said that, there was no conclusive evidence that all those that were accredited through the use of card readers had their data uploaded to the server where the data used by the Petitioners were downloaded.

The appellants therefore sought that the Appeal Court allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the Governorship Election Tribunal and enter judgment for the petitioners as claimed in the petition by nullifying the said election and directing the 3rd respondent to order fresh election to the office of Governor of Delta State within the time prescribed by law.