By Omoghene Benedict
The senatorial candidate of the Justice Must Prevail Party, JMPP, in February Senatorial for Delta South, Mr. Kovie Andrew Epetuku has disclosed that if the Court of Appeal sitting Benin eventually declared the immediate past governor of Delta State and the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan winner of the election, it would amount to gross irregularities.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Epetuku said, “The election that took place which I participated as the candidate of my party in February, 2019 was canceled by the Tribunal sitting in Asaba because it was marred with irregularities and high level of malpractice, and the Court ordered for a rerun within 90 days of the judgement but surprisingly, Dr Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan who was even favoured by the tribunal’s judgement has taken an appeal against the judgment just to avoid a rerun.
According to the JMPP candidate, “The doggedness and openness of the tribunal is worth appreciating but my major concern is that of the APC candidate, Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan who felt that the tribunal was biased for not declaring him the winner.
“Based on our experiences during the election, it was very glaring and obvious that the election was marred with irregularities and with that kind of judgement that, I think justice has prevail, the judges of the tribunal ensured that justice was not denied.
Describing the appeal of Uduaghan as misappropriation of effort, Epetuku said that with content of the judgement and the facts presented, it was very disappointing that the APC candidate, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan is taking a baseless appeal.
He maintained that the appeal of Dr. Uduaghan seeking to be declared winner was contradicting to the case he filed at the tribunal.
“Uduaghan should be grateful because he was favoured by the judgement at the tribunal. The tribunal was able to establish that the election was marred with irregularities, the question now is that, is it the same election that was marred with irregularities that he, Uduaghan wants to be used to declare him winner?
My question to him is on what ground should he be declared winner with an election that is already with irregularities, or is he saying the tribunal should declare him with the irregularities?
Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan will always fail either in the Appeal Court or any other Court. Epetuku disclosed.
Speaking on the PDP candidate, Sen. James Manager, he held that it is very unfortunate that he is claiming to have won the election when the Tribunal has ordered for a rerun by going to Appeal to challenge the judgement. Unless they are telling us that they are going to get new facts outside the ruling of the tribunal.
“I would advise them to go and prepare for the rerun as other candidates are preparing within the stipulated 90 days as declared by the tribunal”. He said.
