Delta APC crisis: Appeal compounds Omo-Agege’s woes Court

The Court of Appeal in Benin City, Edo State, has compounded Senator Ovie Omo-Agege’s travail in the skirmishes over his election into the Senate of the ninth national Assembly. The primary election of the All progressives Congress (APC) through which the embattled senator was nominated for the 2019 elections was controversial, culminating into legal battle.  

The Court of Appeal in its judgment dismissed the appeals by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Reverend Francis Waive, challenging the judgement of the Federal High Court, Asaba, Delta State, which annulled their elections.

Omo-Agege and Waive were nominated APC candidates in the 2019 general elections by the Prophet Jones Erue-led faction of the APC in Delta State, which was challenged at the Delta State High Court by Cyril Ogodo, State Chairman of another APC faction in the state.

Justice Toyin Adegoke of the Federal High Court, Asaba, in her judgment in the suit filed by the factional APC chairman, Cyril Ogodo, suit number FA/ASA/CS/76/2018, had declared null, void and of no effect, any and every action purportedly taken, initiated or carried out by Erue, as APC chairman in Delta State.

The Judge affirmed the plaintiff, Ogodo, as the authentic APC chairman in the state.

Senator Omo-Agege and Rev. Waive had filed an appeal, seeking the upturning of the high Court judgment by the appellate court.

 The Appeal Court in its judgment, dismissed the appeal for lack of merit, awarding a fine N300,000 against each of the appellants.

However, it could not be ascertained if the embattled senator and his associate would be taking the case further. Ogodo had in a statement after the High Court judgment remarked that Senator Omo-Agege was never a candidate of APC in the general elections in Delta State. He noted that the process that brought him up was faulty and his emergence cannot stand.