It’s God’s doing –
Rivers APC
Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
in the 2015 general elections in Rivers State, Dakuku Peterside, forced Rivers
State Governor and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Nyesom Wike ot kiss the dust today with the tsunami of two judgments
from different tribunals handling petitions emanating from the said elections.
First, the Rivers
State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal Holden sitting in Abuja assumed
jurisdiction in the matter brought before it by Peterside, challenging the
declaration of Wike as winner of the April 11, 2015 election. Wike, through his
lawyer, Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, had challenged the Tribunal’s jurisdiction,
questioning its sitting in Abuja. However, the Tribunal held that it had the
jurisdiction to sit in Abuja and entertain the hearing.
Next, the Ahoada East/Abual
Odua Federal Constituency Elections Petitions Tribunal today also dismissed the
application of the member representing Ahoada East/Abual Odua Federal
Constituency in the House of Representatives, Betty Apiafi, challenging the
candidature of the APC candidate, Robinson Ewor, claiming that his party did
not meet the required 21 day notice of its congress to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC). The Tribunal held that the issue being challenged
was actually a pre-election matter and therefore not tenable before it.
It further held that
matters relating to errors during primaries are pre-election matters, and
therefore the Tribunal was not constituted to look into such matters, but
disputes arising from the conduct of the election.
Reacting to the
tribunal’s ruling, Dakuku Peterside, said he was satisfied with the ruling,
stating that “I now expect accelerated hearing of the substantive matter on its
merit so the world will know if there were elections in Rivers Stare or not,”
reiterating his earlier position that the governorship election of April 11 in
Rivers State fell far short of election standards.
He maintained that “nobody
should benefit from visiting violence on the people and violating electoral
laws. Impunity must stop so our society will be one of equal opportunity for
all”.
On its part, the APC,
through a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, described
the ruling from both tribunals as “God’s doing,” noting that it is glad that
the tribunal that earlier ruled that its candidates, Dawari George and Lucky
Odili, were not qualified to be candidates, has now realised the grave error in
those rulings, and now ruled that the issue at stake was actually a
pre-election matter and therefore dismissed the objection of Betty Apiafi.
It explained that is
now clear that the matter of 21 days’ notice to INEC for Primaries has been
confirmed a pre-election matter which is beyond the adjudication of the
election petition tribunals, stressing that it also means that none of the
petitions of its candidates is in danger of disqualification on the basis of
such a pre-election requirement at the tribunals.
It further stated that
the rulings also confirm that the ruling on the matter reserved for Wednesday
with regard to the motion by Gov. Wike and the PDP against Dakuku Peterside and
the APC is likely to suffer a dismissal as no proper ruling on same matter
under same circumstances can go in a different direction. Yet again, it serves
notice that Hon. Dawari George and Hon Lucky Odili will have the rulings on
their matter reversed as the appeals have already been filed.
The APC appealed to
its “leaders and members to continue to remain steadfast in our determination
to reclaim our individual and collective mandates taken away by the Philistines
of our time who are already plundering our commonwealth while threatening us
with violence”.
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