Delta Political Vanguard (DPV) has described as miscarriage of justice, the Appeal Court’s declaration of Mr Thomas Joel-Onowakpo, winner of the Feb. 25, Senatorial election in Delta South Senatorial District.
The National Secretary of the group, Mr Sanco Ese, stated this at a news conference on Thursday, in Asaba.
Ese alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fraudulently cancelled the result from Warri Local Government Area, one of the eight in the Senatorial District and declared Joel-Onowakpo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) winner.
According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Candidate in the election, Evangelist Michael Diden (A.K.A Ejele), filed a petitioned at the Election Tribunal.
“The petition rejected INEC’s declaration and drew attention to the brazen disregard of the extant provisions of the Electoral Act by INEC.
“In Delta state as in others, each senatorial district has an average of eight local government areas.
“How could the results in the Feb. 25, election into the Senate be cancelled entirely in one local government area and the results declared by the INEC on the basis of that?
“That is precisely what transpired in Delta South Senatorial Zone where, result in Warri South Local Government Local Area reputed to be the largest in the zone was controversially cancelled by INEC and results declared”.
Ese berated the INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Anthony Peretimina, for announcing the result, after cancelling that of Warri South, where he claimed there were unexplained discrepancies.
“He then declared 49,955 votes for the APC candidate while PDP’s Diden got 47,656 votes with just 2,299 votes as the margin of victory with many more votes voided from the cancellation in Warri South’s 350 polling units.
“INEC’s Peretimina ought to have declared the election inconclusive and directed a supplementary election in the 350 polling units as the margin of victory was far less than the number of registered and accredited votes in the council.
“This is the step recommended by the Electoral Act and had been applied on numerous occasions in the past.
Curiously, INEC proceeded to announce the result and declared Joel-Onowakpo winner,” Ese said.
He noted that of the eight LGAs, APC’s Joel-Onowakpo won in only one and lost with a very wide margin in the LGA that was cancelled.
“Yet, the Appeal Court judges felt morally comfortable to upturn the Tribunal’s judgment.
“We reject this judgment of the Court of Appeal, but as final level for electoral disputes in legislative elections, we have nowhere to seek redress.
“It is a miscarriage of justice that took place in the last elections in the Delta South Senatorial election.
“The tragedy is that Evangelist Diden is not the loser. The people of Delta South are the ultimate losers,” Ese said.
