Wike heads to Supreme Court as Appeal Court quashes election:


Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday instructed his lawyers to appeal at the Supreme Court, yesterday’s ruling of the decision of the state governorship election petition tribunal which nullified his election. The Court of Appeal Abuja Division yesterday dismissed his appeal challenging the decision of the tribunal. Justice Dongban Mensem held that the appeal lacked merit and substance and consequently dismissed it. In the unanimous judgment of the panel of five justices, Justice Mensem ordered that a fresh election be conducted by INEC in accordance with the Electoral Act 2010 and other relevant laws for the governorship race.The lead judge agreed with the tribunal that the Electoral Act was grossly violated and that the poll was manipulated when the card reader failed on election day. The court disagreed with Wike that the use of the card reader was alien to the Electoral Act, adding that INEC was vested with powers to devise rules and regulations and use any equipment for the purpose of having free, fair and credible elections. Justice Mensen rejected the claim of Governor Wike that he was denied fair hearing because his interlocutory applications were heard along with the petition, adding that  the fact that the applications were dealt with in the tribunal’s judgment had defeated the claim.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three die as Biafran group, NAVY clash

Image
No fewer than three persons were feared dead in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Sunday evening when a group, Independent People of Biafra, clashed with security operatives. It was gathered that 20 persons were injured in the clash. A member of the group, Chinwendu Ikechukwu, told newsmen that the group had after its meeting held at Nkpor, Idemili-North Local Government Area of the state, decided to go and preach to the people on the need to embrace the struggle for Biafran state when the trouble ensued. He said, “On reaching Okpoko junction, we were accosted by a detachment of policemen who fired teargas canisters at our members numbering about 5,000. “They later allowed us to go since we were non-violent but on reaching Uga Junction before the Niger Bridge, the naval men on duty there opened fire on us. “In our defenceless state, three of our members were shot dead while about twenty others sustained injuries. “Even the police who initially allowed us to go later joined in shoot...
Read more

Oseloka Obaze destabilizes other opponents as they boycott today’s primaries:

Image
There may be fresh trouble for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra state as candidates have indicated interest to boycott the primary election of the party or step down over candidate imposition. The Anambra PDP primary election was earlier scheduled to hold on today, August 28 with growing concerns over the conduct of the delegates’ conference and an alleged imposition of candidate by the PDP governors’ forum. A source who spoke to our correspondent said that he and many other aspirants in the election already plan to boycott the election over the imposition of a candidate Oseloka Obaze blessed by former governor Peter Obi. The source alleged that Wike left the conference with the original result sheets and only left behind a photocopy. “The process was defective, the process was wrong because, the chief returning Officer Wike left the delegates conference at 2PM with the originals of the result sheets and left only photocopies behind. “With the photocopi...
Read more