A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, on Monday, set aside the sack of Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori is the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election in Delta State come 2023.
The three-man panel, led by Justice Peter Ige, set aside Oborevwori’s 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 election on account of forgery and perjury.
Recall that Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court Abuja had, on July 7, sacked Oborevwori as the candidate of the PDP in next year’s governorship election in Delta State on grounds of alleged forgery of his academic certificates and perjury.
Justice Taiwo, it will be further recalled, went ahead to order the PDP to submit the name of the person with the runner-up at the primary election of the PDP held on March 25.
Dissatisfied, however, with the ruling, Oborevwori had approached the appellate court for an order setting aside his sack on the grounds that the court erred in law in ordering his removal as the candidate of the PDP.
He hinged his appeal on the grounds that the suit at the lower court was wrongly initiated and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the first place.
In his judgment on the appeal on Monday, Justice Ige agreed with the appellant that the suit filed by David Edevbie was wrongly initiated because allegations of criminal offences must be proven beyond affidavit evidence.
The court held that failure of Edevbie to call relevant witnesses was fatal to the case.
According to the judgment, the plaintiff at the lower court ought to have called relevant authorities from the institutions whose documents were forged.
The court, on another issue, held that the suit of Edevbie was premature because there was no reasonable cause of action.
