GOVERNOR UDUAGHAN DEFEATS GREAT OGBORU AGAIN IN ELECTION TRIBUNAL.

The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, has thrown away the petition of Chief Great Ogboru, which challenged the election of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The five-man panel, which was led by Justice B.S Mohammed, while delivering its 20-page judgment last week Monday, ruled that Chief Ogboru, who contested the governorship election on the platform of the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP), had failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the election that brought in Uduaghan was surrounded with irregularities, and, so, the court thereby dismissed the case in favour of Dr. Uduaghan.
Chief Ogboru had earlier asked a tribunal which was led by Justice Lokulo Shodikpe to nullify the election of Uduaghan on the grounds that the poll by INEC was filled with rigging and ballot box stuffing. According to him, the election, supposedly conducted on the April 14, 2008, did not hold in all the 25 local government areas because electoral materials did not get to the various local government areas, called on the INEC to conduct fresh election for the governorship office in Delta State.
Justice Mohammed, while delivering judgment, stated that the burden of proof lies with the petitioners to show that the election did not take place and that the court could not adduce evidence to prove that there was no voting in the state, adding that the argument of the petitioner appeared not to have met the required standards of law.
Speaking further, he pointed out that there was discrepancy in the statement of oath tendered by the prosecution witnesses as it appeared that it was not made by the deponents.
In his words, “the petitioners were given all the opportunity to prove their cases in the open court, but then this can hardly be said to be the fault of the respondents. The petition had been riddled with bundle of missed opportunities by the petitioners that if taken at the appropriate time may have swung the petition to their advantage. They even failed to seize the opportunity offered them by this tribunal to sort out the tender electoral documents in open court and tender those relevant documents relevant to their cases, but they rather preferred to apply for discharge of the document and later found themselves in a tight corner.”
In his reaction,councel to Ogboru,Mr. Nicholas Icheor, said that having regard to the need to defer to the process, they are bound by the judgment and that the petitioners would definitely take a closer look at the judgment and decide on what to do next.
Counsel to Uduaghan, Babiru Turaki, described the judgment as sound and comprehensive.
Meanwhile, Chief Great Ogboru, who spoke through his younger brother, Mr. Tunna Ogboru, at the court premises, described the judgment as a miscarriage of justice and promised that they were going to the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment.