Kingsley Kanayo
The court of appeal has 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.
The appeal court, after dismissing all the seven issues of Wike’s appeal, upheld the decision of the tribunal and ordered that a fresh governorship election be held. The five judges of the appellate court agreed on the lead judgment upholding the decision of the tribunal sacking Wike.
In October, the tribunal had held that Wike was not duly elected governor of Rivers state. It ruled that a fresh election be held in the state within 90 days. But Wike appealed against the judgment, 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.
Wike had previously gone to the supreme court to challenge the jurisdiction of the tribunal, which sacked him. His main argument 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, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the April 11 governorship election in Rivers state.
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