Edo guber poll: Oshiomhole floors Airhiavbere at S-Court

There was wild jubilation in different parts of Edo State Friday, as youths, market women throng the streets of Benin City and Auchi, celebrating the judgment of the Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling of  the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal, striking out the issue of the educational qualification of Governor Adams Oshiomhole as a pre-election matter, thus making the matter technically dead.
Youths including Okada riders (commercial motorcyclists) chanted victory songs round the streets of Benin in convoy, appealing to Oshiomhole to go for presidency after his tenure as Governor of Edo state, as according to them, the impact his administration in the state would never be forgotten.

The state Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu, described the judgment as victory for  democracy just as the Esogban of Benin Kingdom and chairman of the Benin Forum, Chief David Edebiri, declared that “the oracle has spoken again, no body can doubt the Oracle, not even Airhiavbere.”
PDP Stakeholders in the state in a statement signed by Chief Aisulimhen Ighodaro, called for the expulsion of Airhiavbere for “disobeying the decision of the party not to contest the result of the election in the court” even as the VANGUARD for a Better Edo, VFBE, has also hailed the Supreme Court for setting aside the ruling of the Appeal Court which ordered the fresh hearing of General Charles Airhiavbere’s petition arising from the July 14 governorship in Edo State  by the Election Petition Tribunal.
The Executive Director of the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev.David Ugolor, also said that “through this judgment, the judiciary has once again shown to the people that they are not just the defender of the ordinary man, but also the protector of the ordinary man”.
The Supreme Court yesterday declined to order the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City, Edo State to probe the authenticity of the governor’s educational qualifications.
A seven-man panel of justices of the apex court in their unanimous judgment, upheld two separate appeals that were filed before them by Governor Oshiomohole, challenging the verdict of an Appeal Court sitting in Benin which ordered retrial of the petition querying his primary and modern school qualifications.

The gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the July 14, 2012, governorship election in Edo State, General Charles Airhiavbere, rtd, had said that Oshiomhole was not qualified ab-initio to contest both the 2007 and 2012 elections on grounds of his academic qualification as provided for in the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution.
According to him, the certificates he (Oshiomohole) used to secure clearance from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were bogus.
Specifically, the PDP flag-bearer claimed that Oshiomhole only tendered a Modern School Leaving Certificate without a primary School certificate, which he said going by the constitution, did not qualify him to contest the election.
He told the court that the modern school certificate the Edo state Governor presented on oath to INEC was discovered to be fake.
Meanwhile, though the Tribunal led by Justice Suleiman Ambrusa, had in a judgment it delivered on September 27, dismissed the contention of the petitioner as baseless, however, the appellate court, on November 15, 2012, maintained that the PDP candidate’s application had merit and should be heard afresh (de-novo).

VANGUARD