The hope of the embattled Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, was on Thursday, December 3, dashed by the court of appeal in Abuja.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state
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The governor had approached the court to set aside the judgment of the Justice Suleiman Ambursa-led election petition tribunal which annulled his election, asking the court to confirm him the elected governor.
Wike who became governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is supported by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as his party.
At the court hearing of the consolidated appeals filed by the three appellants, after depositing their positions as they urge the court to uphold the election of the embattled governor, the Five-man panel of the court reportedly reserved the matter for judgment.
Justice Dongban Memsem, the presiding judge held that the matter would be decided along with the motion and preliminary objection on a yet-to-be announced date.
During the hearing, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), counsel to Wike also pleaded with the court to strike out the motion filed by Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the APC’s governorship candidate through his lawyer, Akin Olujimi (SAN), praying the court to dismiss the governor’s appeal.
In his argument, counsel to Wike posited that the court could not both entertain a preliminary objection earlier filed by the APC and a motion on the same matter, noting that such move would be subjected to abuse of court processes.
Ukala further pleaded with the court to accept the written argument he submitted on November 25, in response to the said motion. He also argued that the refusal of the tribunal to consider the two motions Wike submitted to it also amounted to denial of fair hearing.
According to him, the subject matter of the motion attacked the locus standi of the petitioner, the competence of the petition itself, the jurisdiction of the election tribunal itself, competence of proceedings as well as attacked the denial to fair hearing of the appellant, issues he had earlier brought up in the appeal.
The legal practitioner, who stated that the attack on these grounds of appeal is unjustifiable, said the issues do not need to come up before they are dismissed.
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Ukala while speaking further on the appeal and the jurisdiction of the tribunal, added that the matter of jurisdiction can come up at the appeal court despite the pronouncement by a lower court.
According to him, it was not necessary to rely on technicalities on assessing the grounds of appeal, presenting strong argument that the appeal should not be struck out.
In his reaction to the issues raised by Ukala, counsel to Peterside argued that there was no abuse of court process in the application as earlier submitted by Ukala.
Vanguard, on December 1, reported that Felix Obuah, Rivers state chairman of the PDP accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state of playing politics with the dead, a situation he described as unfortunate.
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