The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin-City, Edo State, yesterday ordered a fresh trial of the two petitions against the election of Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

President of the Court of Appeal Justice Umaru Abdullahi held that since the petitioners were validly nominated as candidates of their parties, they deserved every right to challenge their exclusion from the general elections.

The appellate court said it was improper for the lower tribunal to dismiss the two petitions filed by Action Congress' (AC's) Peter Okocha (AC) and Democratic Peoples Party's (DPP's) Chief Great Ogboru on the ground that they lacked the locus standi to institute the petitions.

According to Justice Abdullahi, once a party submits a list of its candidate, and is published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the person remains the rightful candidate of that political party.

"Sponsorship of the candidate by a political party is enough to give such a candidate the locus standi to institute a legal action against any perceived wrong,'' he said.

The judge said it was very clear that the lower tribunal, by the dismissal of the two petitions, had effectively shut out the petitioners from the opportunity of fair hearing. Justice Abdullahi, while setting aside the lower tribunal's judgment, refused the prayers of the petitioners that the elections be cancelled.

He said it was too premature a thing to do since averment laid in the substantive petition had yet to be exhaustively considered. He awarded no cost to the parties. The Delta State government and Speaker of the House of Assembly Martins Okonta hailed the court's ruling.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Oma Djebah, said the ruling vindicated the position of the state government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Uduaghan was validly elected by the majority of registered voters.

The statement lauded the honourable justices of the Court of Appeal for resisting the attempt by opposition parties to "smuggle extraneous pleas that were not hitherto prayed at the election petition tribunal into the appeal".

It said the judiciary had once again confirmed its position as the bulwark of the nation's democracy.

Okonta said the ruling was very fair and acceptable to his party. "We are going back to the drawing board and I can assure you that we'll win at the end," he said.