Court Sacks Nwaoboshi As Delta Senator-Elect

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has sacked the Senator representing Delta North in the upper chamber, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, as Senator-elect in the last election, declaring that from available evidence the PDP primary election for Delta North was won by Ned Nwoko.

The court therefore declared Nwoko as the authentic candidate of the party for the 2019 senatorial election.The Presiding Judge, Honourable Justice A.R. Mohammed, delivered the judgment, which lasted for about two hours.
The Judge also ordered the PDP and INEC to immediately publish the name of Prince Ned Nwoko as the authentic candidate of PDP for validly scoring the majority of votes cast in the PDP primary election for Delta North senatorial district.
Making further pronouncements, Justice Mohammed equally ordered Peter Nwaoboshi to stop parading himself as the senator-elect for Delta North senatorial district forthwith.
Dissecting all the matters in contention, the Judge had averred that the onus lied on PDP as the 2nd Defendant and Peter Nwaoboshi as the 3rd Defendant to prove that Nwaoboshi actually won the primary election by producing the primary election materials; but instead refused to respect court orders for the production of the ballot papers.

He noted that all evidences as provided by the Plaintiff has proved that Ned Nwoko won the primary election as conducted by the PDP on the 2nd of October, 2019; while also maintaining that constitutional provisions were followed in filing a substantive suit against the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants in the case.

Speaking to newsmen immediately after the judgment, the lead counsel to the Plaintiff (Nwoko), Barr. Onyeka Nwaokolo, said that it was a landmark judgment. He stressed that the summary of the matter was to inform people that manipulations of electoral processes was no longer in vogue, adding that such could always be quashed except not properly challenged.

The lawyer affirmed that the 2nd and 3rd defendants came to an open court and denied that the exhibits tendered were not the certified true copy of the ballot papers used in the primary election, even when they couldn’t produce any to authenticate their case.

According to the counsel, “There is hope for the common man in this judgment. It is a landmark judgment, which has further deepened our democratic beliefs”.
However, representing Senator Peter Nwaoboshi in court was Barr. Emmanuel Enoiden, who came with a retinue of lawyers like the counsel to the Plaintiff (Ned Nwoko).
At the conclusion of the verdict, Enoiden was not available for interview.