Paul Osuyi, Asaba

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State in the recently concluded general election, Great Ogboru, has filed a petition at the state elections petitions tribunal challenging the declaration of the incumbent governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the March 9 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Secretary of the tribunal, Ahmed Gusau, told newsmen in Asaba that Ogboru’s petition and 50 other petitions from aggrieved candidates had been received by the tribunal.

Gasau said the petitioners were challenging the outcome of the National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections.

He said Ogboru who was the major opponents of Okowa in the governorship election, was the only governorship candidate that filed a petition against the return of the governor as winner of the election.

According to him, the victory of the three senators-elect including James Manager of the PDP (Delta South), Ovie Omo-Agege of the APC (Delta Central) and Peter Nwaoboshi of the PDP (Delta North) were also being contested by their opponents.

He said two petitioned were filed against the return of Mr. Manager, a fifth-term senator, while Omo-Agege and Nwaoboshi had one petition each challenging their victories. Both Omo-Agege and Nwaoboshi are returning to the red chamber for the second term.

The tribunal secretary added that nine petitions were filed for the House of Representatives election, while 37 came from House of Assembly candidates against the winners of the election.

It would be recalled that the governorship candidate of the APC, Mr. Ogboru, had always contested the outcome of elections in the state since 2003 when he started vying for the position on the platform of various opposition political parties.

His latest action is coming on the heels of an Asaba Federal High Court judgment that sacked the Jones Erue-led Delta State APC executive committee through which he emerged as the governorship candidate.

In the said judgment, the court declared as null and void all actions taken on behalf of the APC by the Erue-led executive, one of which was the conduct of the primaries that produced Ogboru.