Chief Kenneth Gbagi, Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in Delta, has appealed to the election petition tribunal in Asaba to disqualify the Governor-elect, Sheriff Oborevwori over alleged forgery.
He also sought the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege; Labour Party Candidate (LP) Ken Pela; the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate Mr. Great Ogboru, on the ground of violation of the 2022 Electoral Act.
Gbagi, a former Minister of Education, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
The SDP candidate in the March 18 governorship election, had filed a 79-page petition against the governor-elect and the other frontline candidates, seeking their disqualification.
Gbagi in a certified true copy petition with No.WPT/DL/GOV/2023 to the tribunal, alleged that the candidates, in their attempts to meet the constitutional requirements of eligibility for the 2023 governorship election, presented forged documents while filling the INEC forms.
He said the forged documents included multiple sworn statutory declarations of age and affidavits, inconsistency of names of some of the candidates, and perjurious swearing of affidavits.
Other electoral infractions alleged to be committed by the candidates also included lying under oath, claims of possessing and non-possession of various academic qualifications, and alleged financial impropriety by one of the candidates, among other infractions.
He also hinged his call for their disqualification on the alleged degrees of electoral malpractice at the March 18 poll in Delta.
He listed the alleged malpractice to include voting, and vote buying induced by the candidates.
He said there were situations where the total number of votes recorded and allotted was more than the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collected by voters that exceeded the number of registered voters in the polling unit.
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Other alleged infractions, according to him, included alteration of some results sheets which did not reflect on the duplicate copies given to party agents, mutilation of form EC8As, polling units without corresponding voting points result sheets, and over and under balloting, among others.
” I am a candidate, and I am saying, we are candidates of these elections, but these people who are candidates ought not to be candidates and the tribunal is the appropriate place.”
The SDP candidate, consequently in the petition, urged the tribunal to declare non and void and of no effect, the Certificate of Return issued by INEC to the candidate of PDP as the winner of the governorship election in Delta State.
He further urged the tribunal to withdraw the Certificate of Return and issue a fresh certificate to him as duly qualified and elected governor.
“For those of us, who contested and participated, I am the only one on the list that is qualified.
“The election has been held, marks were allocated to us, my prayer is that they were not qualified, and I should be declared as the winner of the election because I am the only qualified candidate in the first instance,” he said.
He said it was the right time to bring up the matter as records and experience showed that pre-election cases most times do not go far.
“Go back to the Electoral Act, I could not have raised an objection on the issue of a candidate of a party that I am not a member of.
” Everyone who went to pre-election matter, none of them went anywhere, this is the appropriate time, to raise this issue,” he said
Meanwhile, an effort to get the reaction of the Chief Press Secretary to the Delta Governor-elect, Mr. Dennis Otu, was unsuccessful as he didn’t respond to the WhatsApp message request for his reaction.