Tribunal Sacks Delta APC Senator, Orders Rerun In 48 Units

The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has declared the February 25 Delta central senatorial district election inconclusive.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice W.I. Kpochi, consequently, ordered a re-run in 48 units across four out of eight local government areas in the district.

The Court further held that the Certificate of Return initially issued to Senator Ede Dafinone of the All Progressive Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be set aside.

It was learnt that the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the said election, Ighoyota Amori, had approached the tribunal, seeking to be declared as winner or in the alternative, the court should order a re-run in the contentious four council areas.

It could also be recalled that the tribunal had last week also declared the election of Senator Joel Onowakpo (APC) for Delta South inconclusive, directing INEC to conduct a supplementary election for Warri South Local Government Area of the district within 90 days.

Meanwhile, the tribunal upheld the election of Benedict Etanabene of the Labour Party as a member representing the Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie federal constituency.

Justice Kpochi dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of the PDP, Evelyn Oboro for lack of merit.

Oboro, a former member of the House and former Commissioner for Water Resources in the state, had in her petition, sought the disqualification of Etanabene on the ground that he did not duly resign his teaching position from the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun.

INEC had declared Etanabene who polled 37,107 votes as duly elected while Oboro scored 29,917 in the election.