Delta: Supreme Court dismisses Gbagi’s appeal against Oborevwori

On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal filed by Chief Kenneth Gbagi against the governor of Delta State, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, because it was a waste of time, an intellectual exercise, and had no practical value.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) gubernatorial candidate Gbagi appealed the rulings of the Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, both of which had rejected his attempts to include new material that had not been pleaded or presented at the outset of the trial.

On the date set for approval of final written addresses by the Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Gbagi applied to have his case reopened, claiming he had acquired new material to establish his petition.

The material he was trying to introduce was not pled in his petition, thus the Tribunal dismissed his application for being inept, late, and bizarre.

The Tribunal finished its review of the Petition and rejected Gbagi’s contention that he had won the election.

Gbagi had argued that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori lacked the necessary qualifications to run for office, but the Tribunal found otherwise.

Gbagi appealed the Tribunal’s decision to deny his request to reopen the case because he was dissatisfied with the outcome.

The Court of Appeal agreed with the Tribunal’s decision not to reopen his case and so rejected his appeal.

Gbagi appealed the Court of Appeal’s decision all the way to the Supreme Court because he was still dissatisfied.

Governor Oborevwori’s attorney, Ayo Asala SAN, and the PDP’s, Ekeme Ohwovoriole SAN, contended that the Appeal was without merit because the tribunal had been abolished.

The Supreme Court, in a decision written and read by Justice John Inyang Okoro, unanimously rejected the appeal as frivolous, academic, and useless.

The Supreme Court decided that the time limit of 180 days for considering the Petition had passed, and there was no longer a Tribunal to review the case.