NASS: Omo-Agege, Manager, Nwaoboshi wins; as Uduaghan, others loses at Appeal Court

The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, Monday, affirmed the electoral victory of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Senator James Manager and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi  as duly elected senators in the 2019 National Assembly election in Delta State.

Omo-Agege, is the senator  representing Delta Central on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated  his closest rival Barr Evelyn Oboro of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a victory which was upheld by the electoral tribunal  at Asaba, fortnight ago.

The appellate court has also upheld the election of Senator James Manager of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Delta South Senatorial district, dismissing the petition the former governor of Delta State and APC’s senatorial candidate for Delta South, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, even as the court upturned the decision of the lower court.

The Appeal Court also dismissed the petition filed by Chief Doris Uboh APC’s senatorial candidate challenging the victory of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi in the February 2019 Senatorial Election for Delta North District.

The Appellate Court dismissed the petition  in its entirety for lack of merit, facts and an absolute waste of judicial resources and time.

The Court of Appeal also also upheld the election of Hon. (Rev) Francis Ejiroghene Waive of the APC representing Ughelli North, Ughelli South and Udu federal constituency at the House of Representative, dismissing the PDP candidate’s petition for lack of merit.

The court however,  upturned the judgment of the election tribunal which had earlier sacked representative of Ethiope Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ben Igbakpa.

It would be recalled that Senator Manager, had said shortly after the tribunal verdict in September, that he’s “in a small corner laughing” at the judgment which gave the order for a rerun of the election in 90 days.

“I am in a small corner laughing and I remain unperturbed. This judgment is certainly a miscarriage of justice and truly the tribunal erred in all fronts,” the candidate of the PDP had retorted on his official Facebook handle.

According to Tribuneonline report, Dr Uduaghan, after the verdict by the three-man tribunal panel comprising Justice C.O Onyeaba, (Abia), Justice D. A. Oyegbemi (Nasarawa) and Justice S.N.J Usman (Kogi) through his Media Assistant, Monoyo Edon, had maintained that he won the election and would head to the Appeal Court to claim his mandate.

“While we are happy with the tribunal’s judgment which affirmed my party’s position that the election was rigged and characterized with electoral over voting, we are not entirely satisfied with the judgment as the tribunal ought to have deducted the excess illegal votes and declared me and my party rightful winner of the election.

“In view of this, we shall be challenging the tribunal’s judgment at the Appeal Court to declare us as the outight winner of the February 23rd, 2019 National Assembly Election for Delta South Senatorial District,” he had announced.

However, the Monday verdict from the appellate court has put paid to the electoral tussle as fifth-term Senator Manager was declared the winner of the February 23 national Assembly election, overriding the judgment of the tribunal which had called for a rerun within 90 days.