Court disqualifies Oborevwori, Delta PDP guber candidate, over ‘certificate forgery’

A federal high court in Abuja has disqualified Sheriff Oborevwori, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) in Delta state.

During the PDP governorship primary in May, Oborevwori, speaker of the Delta house of assembly, polled 590 votes to beat his closest rival, David Edevbie, commissioner for finance during the James Ibori administration, who polled 113 votes.

While Oborevwori is the preferred candidate of Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta governor, James Ibori, former governor, is said to be backing Edevbie.

Aggrieved by the outcome of the primary, Edevbie had filed a suit alleging discrepancies in Oborevwori’s certificates.

He also contended that the PDP violated its constitution in the process of the state congress, which produced Oborevwori.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/795/2022, the plaintiff prayed the court to restrain the PDP from forwarding Oborevwori’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and also restrain INEC from receiving or recognising Oborevwori as duly nominated as the party’s flag bearer.

He further sought a restraining order barring Oborevwori from parading himself as the governorship candidate of the party for the forthcoming election.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, Taiwo Taiwo, the presiding judge, held that the suit was meritorious and accordingly granted the reliefs of the plaintiff against Oborevwori.