The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, affirmed the ruling of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, nullifying the election of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.
In its ruling on October 24,2015, the Tribunal chairman, Justice Suleiman Ambrosa, had held that Governor Wike was not validly elected.
He consequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to conduct a rerun.
But Wike, who was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had approached the Court of Appeal, praying that the Tribunal’s ruling be upturned.
Governor Wike had premised his appeal on 26 grounds, faulting the judgement of the Tribunal which favoured the petitioner, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
Wike, in his notice of Appeal, stated: “Take notice that the Appellant being dissatisfied with the decision of the Governorship Election Tribunal for Rivers State, sitting in Abuja, contained in the judgment of the tribunal which has Hon. Justice Suleiman Ambrosa (chairman), Hon. Justice Wesley Ibrahim Leha (member ) and Hon. Justice Bayo Taiwo (member ) sitting in Court no. 23 of the FCT High Court dated the 24th of October 2015, doth hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal upon the grounds set out in paragraph 3 and will at the hearing seek the reliefs set out in paragraph 4.”
He also sought an order of the Court of Appeal allowing his appeal and an order of the Court setting aside the judgment /decision of the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal.
The governor further enjoined the Court of Appeal to make an “order striking out or dismissing the election petition filed on May 3, 2015 by Dakuku Peterside and the APC as petitioners at the tribunal”.
Governor Wike among other grounds noted that the tribunal erred in law when it relied on hearsay and inadmissible evidence to nullify his election.
He added that the finding and conclusion of the tribunal was not supported by evidence before the court.
The governor stated in his notice of Appeal: “The Governorship Election Tribunal for Rivers State erred in law when it refused to follow the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kakih vs PDP (2014) 5 NWLR which was duly cited to it to the effect that a party who makes non-voting or misconduct of an election the pivot of his case must call at least one disenfranchised voter from each of the polling booths or units or stations in the constituency.”
Governor Wike also appealed on the ground that the Tribunal nullified his election on the basis of card reader accreditation even though the Electoral Act recognised manual accreditation.
According to him, the proof of accreditation of voters under the law is by the production of the register of voters bearing the indications of the presiding officer as to the persons accredited to vote and not by card reader report.
Governor Wike noted in his notice of Appeal: “The Tribunal wrongly neglected, failed and refused to abide by and follow the binding decision of the Court of Appeal in APC vs Olujimi Agbaje: Appeal No: CA/L/EP/GOV./751A/2015 (unreported) delivered on 26th August, which was duly cited to it and thereby came to a wrong conclusion.”
He added that the petitioners at the tribunal failed to disclose any reasonable cause of action against the Respondents and the Tribunal failed to conduct a pre-trial conference after the removal of the first chairman, hence the tribunal erred in its judgement.
The governor stated: “The tribunal wrongly countenanced the testimony of delegates of subpoenaed witnesses which basically constitutes an indirect alteration of or addition to the statement of facts of the petition without the leave of the court. The testimony of these witnesses runs counter to the pleaded case of the petitioners and contradict the rest of the evidence of the petitioners witnesses in several material particulars.”
With the ruling of the Appellate Court, INEC will now fix a date for fresh election within 90 days.
