Nyesom Wike
An Appeal Court in Abuja has upheld the judgment of the Rivers State election petition tribunal which nullified the election of Nyesom Wike as governor of the state. The three-man Court of Appeal panel struck out the appeal of Nyesom Wike seeking a dismissal of the judgment of the Rivers election petition tribunal which sacked him as governor of the state.Justice M.B. Dongban-Mensem,in an 110-page ruling, ruled that the election of Nyesom Wike did not conform with the electoral act, and, therefore, ordered a rerun in 90 days.
In swift response the tribunal ruling, Wike had on Saturday, October 24, approached the court to contest the ruling, insisting that he was duly elected governor of the state.
He asked the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the tribunal, arguing that the lower court failed to consider the evidence – that a proper election took place in Rivers state on April 11 – tendered before it.
He argued that at the apex court was that the tribunal should have sat in Rivers state and not in Abuja. But the supreme court dismissed his suit for lacking in merit, ruling that the tribunal – owing to security reasons – was right to have relocated to Abuja to sit in judgment on the petition of Dakuku Peterside, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC in the April 11 governorship election in Rivers state.
Wike is yet to react to the development.
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