21st October, 2022
Oborevwori Sheriff, the speaker of Delta State Assembly and the anointed candidate of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, has defeated David Edevbie at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment today, affirmed Oborevwori as the right governorship candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta and dismissed the appeal by Edevbie who is said to be backed by James Ibori.
Justice Tijani Abubakar, who delivered the judgment, said the appeal by Edevbie was dismissed for lacking in merit.
The Supreme Court judgment, however, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on August 29, of this year.
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal had set aside the sack of Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori as the candidate of the PDP in the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.
The panel led by Justice Peter Ige set aside Oborevwori sack on the grounds that the lower court erred in law in reaching the conclusion that Oborevwori was not qualified to participate in the governorship primary election of the PDP on account of forgery and perjury.
Oborevwori had emerged winner of the PDP governorship primary after he polled 590 of the total votes cast at the March 25 primary election.
However, David Edevbie who came second with 113 votes dragged Oborevwori and the PDP to court accusing Oborevwori of falsehood and that he forged the academic certificates he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Amongst the prayers Edevbie sought at the court included an order removing Oborevwori as the candidate of the PDP in the March 2023 poll and that his name be forwarded to INEC as an authentic candidate of the PDP.
Delivering judgment in Edevbie’s suit, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court Abuja had on July 7, sacked Oborevwori as the candidate of the PDP having found him guilty of alleged forgery of his academic certificates and perjury.
Justice Taiwo then went ahead to order the PDP to submit the name of Edevbie, who came second at the March 25 governorship primary.
Dissatisfied Oborevwori then approached the appellate court to challenge his removal as PDP governorship candidate.
He had predicated his appeal on 18 grounds amongst which was that the suit at the lower court was wrongly initiated and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it in the first place.
However, in a unanimous judgment, the three-man panel of the Appeal court agreed with the appellant that the suit filed by David Edevbie was wrongly initiated because allegations of criminal offenses must be proven beyond affidavit evidences.
The panel noted that cases involving criminal allegations ought not to have commenced by an Originating Summons as in the instant case.
The court held that this case, “cannot be resolved without recourse to oral evidence,” because the issue of forgery and falsehood and others raised by the plaintiff and 1st respondent “is deeply rooted in criminality.”
The panel stressed that such criminal cases must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt with the calling of relevant witnesses and not by mere affidavit evidence.
The court held that the failure of Edevbie to call relevant witnesses was fatal to the case and the trial court erred in law when he found merit in the suit and granted the reliefs sought.
According to the judgment, Edevbie would have called the institutions he claimed their certificates were forged to prove his allegations, adding that the forged certificates and other documents must be presented before the court to substantiate the allegations.
Justice Ige further stated that it was not enough to prove that the certificates and other documents were forged, but the plaintiff must prove that it was the defendant himself who forged the said certificates and other documents.
The court on another issue held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the first place because there was no reasonable cause of action at the time it was filed.
According to the appellate court, its findings showed that even the lower court observed that neither Oborevwori nor his party, PDP, breached the party’s guidelines as well as the Electoral Act as regards the selection and nomination of its candidate for the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.
While holding that the suit was premature, the appellate court stated that the plaintiff ought to have waited for the PDP to have forwarded the name of Oborevwori to INEC as its candidate in the 2023 governorship election in Delta State.
“It is when the name of the respondent/ appellant has been forwarded to INEC and the names and attached documents published that the plaintiff/ 1st respondent can approach the court and claim presentation of false documents,” the court ruled.
Ige lamented that while Justice Taiwo had acknowledged the fact that the name of Oborevwori has not yet been forwarded to INEC as PDP’s candidate he erroneously held that the plaintiff need not wait for crystalisation of the process before going to court.
On the alleged discrepancies in the names on the certificates presented by Oborevwori, the court held that Edevbie did not only failed to prove that the names were not that of Oborevwori but also failed to show who owns those names.
“Having resolved issues 1,2,4 and 5 in favour of the appellant, the appeal has merit and is bound to succeed judgment of the lower court delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo is hereby set aside,” it added.