Indications emerged on Monday that Olorogun David Edevbie is heading to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which set aside the order of a Federal High Court in respect of the legal battle over the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidacy in Delta State.

A chieftain of the PDP, who preferred anonymity, confided in Daily Independent shortly after the appeal court judgment that Olorogun Edevbie will challenge the verdict at the apex court. “This is a pre-election matter. This is not the last court in Nigeria.

The issue raised by Olorogun David Edevbie at the trial court is a constitutional issue.

“I can tell you that barring unforeseen circumstances, our principal will head to Supreme Court to seek redress”, the PDP chieftain said.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had on July 7, 2022, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP to recognise Olorogun David Edevbie as candidate of the PDP in the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.

Justice Taiwo disqualified Sheriff Oborevwori, the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, who won the May 25, 2022 gubernatorial primary election of the PDP.

The trial judge had agreed with the plaintiff in the suit, Edevbie, that Oborevwori ought not to be on the ballot for the PDP primary election on account of supplying false and forged documents to INEC in aid of his qualification for the governorship election.

But not satisfied with the judgment of Justice Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Oborevwori and the PDP headed to the Court of Appeal to seek redress.

Delivering judgment on the appeal by Oborevwori, the appellate court, led by Justice Peter Ige, in a unanimous decision held that the appeal was “meritorious” and subsequently allowed same.

It was the finding of the Appeal Court that the 1st respondent (Edevbie) made allegations deeply rooted and founded on criminality at the trial court which must be proven “beyond reasonable doubt” by calling oral evidence and not affidavit evidence alone.

The three-man panel held that the suit was wrongly initiated at the trial court by way of originating summon instead of writ of summon in view of criminal allegations made against the appellant.

Justice Ige in a lead judgment held that allegations of commission of forgery of certificates and discrepancies in credentials allegedly committed by the appellant are ones that cannot be proven on affidavit evidence.

The court said based on the seriousness of the criminal allegations, “it behooves on the 1st respondent to prove the certificate forgery allegations against the appellant, noting that the 1st respondent did not file a further affidavit when the appellant frontally denied the allegations.

More so, Justice Ige held that the suit by Edevbie at the Federal High Court, Abuja, was premature and does not disclose reasonable cause of action.

The appellate court reasoned that the 1st respondent filed the suit at a time the name of the appellant had not been forwarded by PDP and announced by INEC as candidate of the party for Delta State governorship election in 2023.

“An aspirant can only challenge a candidate in court when INEC releases names of candidates for a particular election.

“The name of the candidate had not been forwarded to INEC by the PDP”, Justice Ige noted, adding that “section 29(5) of Electoral Act was misconstrued by the trial court”.

At the hearing of the appeal, Edevbie’s lawyer, Ejembi Eko (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit and affirm the decision of the lower court which disqualified the appellant.

On his part, Damian Dodo (SAN), counsel to Oborevwori, adopted his brief of argument, and urged the court to accept the appeal and grant all the reliefs sought including setting aside the July 7 judgment.

Oborevwori, in an eighteen- ground of appeal, had urged the appellate court to set aside the judgment given by Justice Taiwo in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/795/2022.

He stated that Justice Taiwo misdirected himself in law when he assumed jurisdiction to entertain the claim of the plaintiff, predicated on section 29(5) of the Electoral Act, 2022, before submission of his name (the appellant’s) to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Oborevwori faulted Justice Taiwo for allegedly ignoring the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Modibbo Vs Usman (2020) 3 NWLR (PT. 1712) 470, in which he claimed the apex court held that section 29(5) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which was the same with section 31(5) of the Electoral Act, 2010, had settled the law that cause of action only arose when the name of a candidate was submitted and published.

He said, “The trial judge side-tracked the decision of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal contrary to the established doctrine of stare decisis and by his decision overruling the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

“The first respondent (Edevbie) on oath admitted that the name of the appellant was yet to be submitted and the trial court held that the first respondent by law, need not wait for the publication of the name of the appellant by INEC.”

Oborevwori argued that it was in the law that information about a candidate’s qualification could only be challenged after the political party sponsoring the candidate submitted the name and INEC published the name and the accompanying affidavit.

He further contended that the trial judge misdirected himself in law when he agreed with Edevbie that he (appellant) failed to meet the constitutional requirement of sections 177 (a) and 182(1)(J) of the 1999 constitution and that his certificates were forged. (Daily Independent)

Update news