Court Disqualifies Delta PDP Guber Candidate

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday disqualified the Delta State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Sherrif Oborevwori, from contesting the 2023 election.

The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, held that Oborevwori lacked the legal competence to participate in the election.

The verdict followed a suit brought before the court by an aggrieved member of the party, Olorogun Edevbie.

The plaintiff had, among other things, contended that the defendant was not validly nominated by his party.

He told the court that PDP violated both its constitution and the electoral guidelines as issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during its state congress that produced Oborevwori as the party’s governorship flagbearer for the forthcoming gubernatorial election.

Consequently, the plaintiff, prayed the court to restrain the party from forwarding Oborevwori’s name to the INEC, and to further restrain the electoral body from receiving or recognising the defendant as the duly nominated candidate of s the party for the election.

More so, the plaintiff sought an order to restrain Oborevwori from parading or carrying himself as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state.

Also cited as defendants in the matter were the PDP and the INEC.

Delivering the judgment on Thursday, Justice Taiwo held that the suit was meritorious and accordingly granted the reliefs against Oborevwori.

The vice-presidential candidate of the PDP, Ifeanyi Okowa, is the governor of the state, and Oborevwori, who’s the sitting speaker of the state assembly, is his political associate.