Okowa defence lawyer loses $200,000; Tribunal gives judgment today

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa

*Ogboru,Olorogun O’tegha Emerhor know fate today

The three-man panel of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal led by Justice Nasir Gunmi will deliver judgment today in the two petitions filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) challenging the declaration of Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the April 11 governorship election.

Olorogun O’tegha Emerhor is the candidate of the APC and Chief Great Ogboru, candidate of Labour Party.

Ahead of the judgment, one of the  senior counsel in the defence team of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa reportedly  lost $200,000 in a popular hotel in Asaba, the Delta State capital, The Nation reported.

Although  Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Alkali Usman, said $100,000 was stolen, it was unclear  the  purpose of the money and why the lawyer kept such money in the hotel.

The lead lawyers in the defence team are: Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) representing Okowa (the first respondent); Mr. A.T. Kehinde (SAN) for  the PDP  and Damien Dodo (SAN) for the third respondent (INEC).

It was learnt that four suspects – two females and two males – were arrested and detained by the police over the theft.

Of the four, a female believed to be the girlfriend of one of the suspects was also arrested. The suspects are Uchechukwu, Florence , Favour and  Chidozie.

 

All the suspects have received  police bail, especially since the owner of the money has not formally lodged a complaint with the police. The complaint was lodged by officials of the hotel.

According to police commissioner Alkali: ‘We have received a case of stolen money from Grand Hotel by the chief security officer of the hotel, who reported that one of his guests lost the sum of $100,000.We incidented the matter at the Police ‘A’ Division and requested that those who worked overnight and those who had the keys to the chalet and those on night duty on that day appear at the police station.

“We visited the scene of the incident. When we did not see the complainant, we had to release those four persons pending when the complainant will come and formally lodge a complaint.”