A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upturned the judgment of Federal High Court, which invalidated the emergence of Delta State Speaker, Sheriff Oborevwori as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s election.
The intermediate appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to have entertained the suit in the first instance, the cause of action in the case having not crystallised as at when the suit was filed.
David Edevbie had approached the trial court with a lawsuit to crash the political ambition of the Delta Speaker Sheriff Oborevwori.
The trial high court judge in the case, Justice Taiwo Taiwo in a July 7, 2022 judgment sacked Sheriff Oborevwori as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Aggrieved, Oborevwori came before the Court of Appeal in Abuja for a review of the trial court’s decision.
A three-member panel of the appellate court, on Monday presided over by Justice Peter Ige held that the lower court judgment failed because Edevbie failed to prove his claim that Oborevwori supplied false and forged academic credentials and other documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) INEC in aid of his qualification for the governorship election.
It added that Justice Taiwo Taiwo (now retired) who delivered the July 7, 2022 judgment, erred when he upheld Edevbie’s claims after finding that the cause of action has not crystallised because Oborevwori’s name was not yet submitted to INEC and published
