Tribunal Rejects Amaechi As Omehia’s Substitute

The rejection by the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal of Governor Omehia’s name to be substituted in place of the deposed Governor, Celestine Omehia, who withdraw from the tribunal recently in said to be paving the way for nullification of the April 14 polls.
The Verite reliably gathered that the Election Petition Tribunal last week struck out a motion by the Governorship Candidate of the African Political System (APS) in the state, Arthur Kalagbor, praying it to substitute Omehia’s name with that of Gov. Amaechi, as 1st respondent.
Earlier, when Omehia applied to the tribunal for his withdrawal as 1st respondent, Chief Awuse had argued that the Supreme Courts judgment against Omehia was a sufficient proof of his petition and therefore should serve as a basic for the nullification of the Guber polls in Rivers State, thereby fulfilling the requirements of section 147 (1) of the Electoral Act 2007.
Counsel to Chief Awuse averred that by virtue of section 145 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2006, the tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain grounds of a petition to the effect that a person whose election is questioned was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election and that the jurisdiction of the High Court under common law does not curtail or limit the jurisdiction of the Election Tribunal.
The opposition still maintains that by section 178 of the Nigerian constitution, a person can only become the Governor of a state after an election in which he was duly elected and that Amaechi never contested the Guber polls on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to them, by the provisions of sections 177-179 of the constitution, it is a person referred to as a candidate and not a political party is no more than sponsor the candidate, as there is no room for independent candidates under the constitution.
Meanwhile, there are indications that some PDP stalwarts who have constituted themselves into a formidable opposition to oust Amaechi are allegedly rallying round the Labour Party Guber candidate in the state, Ashley Emenike against Awuse should there be a by election between the duo.
That based on their overwhelming evidences against the PDP, the (the opposition) believe that the Tribunal will nullify the elections and order for a fresh poll where they would stand by the Labour Party (LP).