Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, governorship candidate of the Delta State All Progressive Congress (APC) for the March 9, 2019 election and his party on Tuesday 16 July 2019, closed their case with presentation of documented evidence at the state governorship election petitions tribunal sitting in Asaba.
The Petitioners (Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru and APC), having called about 20 witnesses, decided to close their case.
Ogboru is challenging the reelection of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the March 9 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Apart from calling witnesses, the Petitioners also tendered volumes of documentary evidences which include voters’ registers and results from polling units level up to the State level (EC8As to EC8Es) in proof of their case.
Meanwhile, the 1st Respondent, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa who was supposed to open his defence on 17th July, 2019, pleaded for time to enable them study the case of the Petitioners.
Notwithstanding the application of the 1st respondent, the tribunal insisted that the 1st respondent’s time starts running from 17th of July, 2019. However, hearing of the defence of the 1st Respondent comes up on Tuesday, 23rd of July, 2019.
That is, by Tuesday next week the tribunal will reconvened based on the application of 1st Respondent, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who would be left with only five days to state his defence to the petition/case of the Petitioners, instead of ten days originally allocated to him.
