Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, has appealed the Federal High Court judgement, which was against his candidature for the 2023 election.
Oborevwori, who also is the speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, in a notice and grounds of appeal, filed by his counsel, Joe Odey Agi, submitted that being dissatisfied with the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division delivered on 7th July, 2022 in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/795/2022 by Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The speaker, who raised nine grounds of appeal against the judgement in his notice of appeal filed at the Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday said upon the grounds set out in paragraph three and will at the hearing of the appeal seek the reliefs set out in paragraph four hereof.
Oborevwori also filed along with the notice of appeal, an application for a stay of execution of the verdict delivered on Thursday by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
However, challenging the verdict in his notice of appeal, Hon. Oborevwori, who is currently the Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, said the trial judge, misdirected himself by wrongly assuming jurisdiction to hear Edevbie’s suit.
He argued through his lawyer, Joe Agi, a senior advocate, that no cause of action had arisen to give the plaintiff the right to sue over the candidacy when INEC had yet to publish the name of the party’s candidate.
“The 1st respondent, on oath, admitted that the name of the appellant was yet to be submitted and the trial court held that the 1st respondent by law, need not wait for the publication of the name of the appellant by the Independent National Electoral Commission, before approaching the court,” the notice of appeal reads in part.
The appellant argued that unless the political party sponsoring a candidate submits the name and INEC publishes the name accompanied by a High Court affidavit indicating that he or she has fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for the election, “that is the only time the court can be approached not before”.
