By Amos Igbebe
Following the sack of the Rivers and Akwa Ibom States Governors, Chief Nyesom Wike and Emmanuel Udom, by the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, fear and tension are mounting up in Delta where Great Ovedje Ogboru of the Labour Party and Otega Emerhor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are challenging the tribunal victory of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the PDP Governor of Delta State.
The fear is heightened as the judgment has been moved from the Appeal Court in Benin to Abuja for judgment. The fear is that the Governors of Rivers and Akwa Ibom States were sacked by the same Appeal Court where Delta’s case has been transferred to for final judgment on Thursday.
Sympathetic politicians of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), members of the state executive council, including commissioners, Special Advisers, Special Assistants, Board Chairmen and members, who were appointed by the Okowa’s government, are currently gripped with fear over the possibility of losing their offices should the Appeal Court invalidate the election of their principal, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa in Abuja.
The fear is also not unconnected with the possibility of Okowa losing at the re-run that may be declared should the Appeal Court upturn Okowa’s electoral victory at the April 11 governorship election in the state. This is so because the appellants who filed appeals against the PDP candidate are hell bent on nullifying the victory of Okowa, insisting that Okowa never won the election but rigged his way into Delta Government House.
Emerhor of the APC and Ogboru of Labour Party had faulted the judgment delivered by the three man tribunal in Asaba. They argued that the tribunal judges erred in the judgment delivered on Monday October 26, 2015. The duo insisted that the judges led by Justice Nairu Gunmi overlooked the over voting which was the anticipated ground for the prayer for nullification of the election.
In their various submissions, they prayed the tribunal to invalidate Senator Okowa’s victory citing various degrees of irregularities and malpractices in the election that brought Okowa to Delta Government House. Otega, in his petition, alleged that Okowa manipulated the votes of the electorate leading to his party securing more votes than the number of accredited voters in the election.
In the April 11 election which produced Okowa, the sitting Governor scored 724, 680 votes, Ogboru scored 130,000 votes while Emerhor garnered 63,000 votes in all the 25 local government areas of the state. But, according to results from the card readers, only 715,392 voters were accredited and uploaded at the central server at the headquarters of the election umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
Following the release of the number of accredited voters compared with the figures scored by each contender, Ogboru and Emerhor had argued that Okowa manipulated the votes to his advantage, hence they had prayed the tribunal to upturn the election of Okowa and call for a re-run in the state which the tribunal overlooked, maintaining that there was no enough ground for the election to be nullified.
Okowa’s defense dwelt on the fact that there was provision for manual accreditation for voters who could not be accredited by the card readers provided by INEC, hence the additional number which made his votes higher than the number accredited by card readers was the product of the voters manually accredited by INEC.
The two opponents and the defender called various witnesses who were subpoenaed by the tribunal and gave various discordant evidences during the period the tribunal gave opportunity to all the parties concerned to submit witnesses either against or for the victory of Okowa.
The battle either for Okowa or against will come to rest on Thursday as the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja will put paid to all the contentious battles going on online and over the social media by the camps of Emerhor, Ogboru and Okowa. On why the appeal was moved from Benin, the Edo State capital, to Abuja, Emerhor’s media aide, Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, alleged that the appeal was moved to Abuja following the discovery that PDP and Okowa had bribed the Benin Appeal Court judges, leading to the sack of the judges and the appeal judgment moved to Abuja.
He added that it was moved to Abuja for maximum security with the belief that if the judgment that would be passed could not favour the PDP, there might be security breach in the state leading to uprising and violence between supporters of the contending parties. Latimore had consistently accused the PDP candidate of corruption and rigging to victory. He said PDP never won election but employed thugs to coerce voters and election officers to do their bidding against the provision and guidelines provided by INEC for the elections.
But State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Deinghan Macaulay, denied all the allegations against the PDP. Macaulay argued that the APC had neither strength nor any political structure to win election in Delta. He said PDP has built structures around the state which has consistently aided the party in winning all elections in the oil rich Delta State. According to him, PDP has presence in all the council areas with over 90 percent members in the Delta State House of Assembly. Hence, it is the party in the state. He said in Delta North, Delta South and parts of Central, the PDP is on ground. He was very optimistic that PDP would still win at the Appeal Court but added that after APC may have lost at the Court of Appeal, it will again move to the Supreme Court.
Macaulay accused APC of continuously blackmailing the PDP as that is its stock in trade. He said the bribery scandal which the APC had accused the PDP of was the figment of the APC’s imagination, insisting that the ruling national party is known for black mail and propagating unfounded reports against his party. He said since APC lost the April 11 election, black mail had been its business with the aim of discrediting the PDP in the state. The PDP image maker said “if you conduct election 10 times in Delta, APC will not win. They believe in Buhari, because Buhari and APC are in the centre, they will intimidate us.” He also dismissed the allegation of bribing the Benin Appeal Court judges.
While some are of the view that the election of Okowa will be invalidated considering the case of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom, whose election was annulled following evidence of over voting as APC also claims in Delta, others are of the view that Okowa won the election convincingly and there is no ground for fear of losing the election at the Appeal Court. They argued that as Okowa won at the tribunal, it is still certain that he would win at the Appeal, though holden in Abuja.
