The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratoc Party , PDP in Delta State , Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, has appealed the Federal High Court Judgement, which was against his candidature for the 2023 gubernatorial election in the State.
Oborevwori, who also is the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly
in a Notice and Grounds of Appeal ,filed by his counsel, Joe Odey Agi, (SAN) submitted that being dissatisfied with the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division delivered on 7″ July, 2022 in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/795/2022 by Honourable Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The Speaker who raised nine grounds of appeal against the judgement in his notice of appeal filed at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday said upon the grounds set out in paragraph 3 and will at the hearing of the appeal seek the reliefs set out in paragraph 4 hereof.
Oborevwori also filed along with the notice of appeal, an application for a stay of execution of the verdict delivered on Thursday by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
But challenging the verdict in his notice of appeal, Mr Oborevwori, who is currently the Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, said the trial judge, misdirected himself by wrongly assuming jurisdiction to hear Mr Edevbie’s suit.
He argued through his lawyer, Joe Agi, a senior advocate, that no cause of action had arisen to give the plaintiff the right to sue over the candidacy when INEC had yet to publish the name of the party’s candidate.
“The 1st respondent, on oath, admitted that the name of the appellant was yet to be submitted and the trial court held that the 1st respondent by law need not wait for the publication of the name of the appellant by the Independent National Electoral Commission before approaching the court,” the notice of appeal reads in part.
The appellant argued that unless the political party sponsoring a candidate submits the name and INEC publishes the name accompanied by a High Court affidavit indicating that he or she has fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for the election, “that is the only time the court can be approached not before”.
He also argued in another grounds of appeal that the trial judge erroneously agreed with Mr Edevbie that he failed to meet the constitutional requirement of sections 177(a) and 182(1)(j) of the Nigerian constitution because of his use of forged certificates.
Mr Oborevwori, who denied submitting forged certificates to INEC, contended that the requirement of sections 177(a) and 182(1)(j) of the Nigerian constitution could only come into play “upon presentation of a forged certificate to INEC and no other body or person which is not the case before the court.”
He said the court “makes mockery of the law” by relying on the documents he submitted to INEC in 2018 for his election to the Delta State House of Assembly of Delta State or to the PDP on April 30, 2022, which was “way after 14 days of the filing of the suit” contrary to section 285(14) of the Nigerian constitution.
The appellant also argued that the judge erred in law by holding that he did not challenge the claims that his certificate was forged.
He said the burden of proof “is on the plaintiff and not on the weakness of the case of the defendant.”
Among other grounds, the appellant argued that the case before the court was an intra-party affair of the PDP which he argued that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain.
He also faulted the court’s decision for holding that the plaintiff “has proved his case and therefore entitled to judgement”.
He also contended that the trial judge erred in law by glossing over his explanation of the discrepancies in his name backed by a government gazette in a reply he filed on June 17, 2022.
Prayer, stay of execution
He sought an order granting his appeal and setting aside the lower court’s judgement.
In a separate application filed at the Federal High Court, the appellant sought an order of stay of execution. He said the judgement, if not stayed, would render the appeal an academic exercise.
