The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State in a ruling on Friday.

Recall that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has filed an appeal against the victory of Oborevwori in the governorship election held in the state on March 18, 2023.

However, in a unanimous decision, a five-member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court dismissed the appeal and upheld the election of the Delta governor.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court gave a reason for affirming Oborevwori as the governor saying the appeal lacked merit.

According to Justice Okoro, the appeal lacked merit as the APC and its candidate, Omo-Agege, failed to prove that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2023.

The court dismissed Omo-Agege’s contention that some of the result sheets that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, relied upon to declare Oborevwori as the winner of the election, did not have serial numbers.

According to the court, even if the total number of INEC forms that the Appellants complained about were removed, it would still not affect the margin of lead that was in Oborevwori’s favour.

It held that the Appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law to warrant the setting aside of both the Court of Appeal judgement and the verdict of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

Consequently, it dismissed the petition without cost. 

It will be recalled that INEC declared that Oborevwori of the PDP polled 360, 234 votes to win the governorship election ahead of Omo-Agege of the APC who secured 240, 229 votes.

However, dissatisfied with the result, Omo-Agege, who is the immediate past Deputy President of the Senate, approached the court to nullify the outcome of the election.