Wale Igbintade
The State and National Assembly Appeal Court sitting in Lagos has affirmed the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State in the March 18 governorship election.
The Appeal Court, in a unanimous decision, dismissed four separate appeals filed by Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Beatrice Itubo of Labour Party (LP), Innocent Ekwu of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), and Lulu Briggs Dumo of Accord Party respectively.
Justice Olabode Adegbehingbe, in his lead judgment, held that all the appellants failed to prove the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court however faulted the tribunal for dismissing Cole’s appeal on the ground that APC that sponsored him had withdrawn its petition against Governor Fubara’s victory.
The court held that the fact that APC withdrew its petition against Fubara’s victory does not prevent its candidate, Cole, from pursuing his appeal.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared PDP’s Fubara as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
Fubara polled 302,614 votes to defeat his closet rival, Cole of the APC, who scored 95,274 votes, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Senator Magnus Abe, and Itubo came a distant third and fourth with 46,981 and 22,224 votes respectively.
Not satisfied with the declaration of Fubara as the winner of the election, the LP, APC and Ekwu filed petitions before the tribunal challenging the result.
In its judgment, the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal dismissed the petition of Cole of the APC partly on the ground that the APC that sponsored him (Cole) had withdrawn the petition against Fubara’s victory.
The tribunal equally dismissed the petitions filed by the governorship candidate of the LP in Rivers State, Beatrice Itubo and that of Innocent Ekwu and the APM for lacking in merit.
It held that Ekwu lacked the locus standi to institute the petition as he didn’t contest the Rivers State governorship election.
Dissatisfied, the appellants approached the Appeal Court and urged the court to set aside the judgment of the lower tribunal and allow their appeals.
Delivering judgment on Cole’s appeal, Justice Adegbehingbe held that APC and its candidate, Cole, did not file a joint appeal, adding that a political party cannot compel its candidate to file an appeal neither could a candidate compel a political party to do the same.
He held that the tribunal was in error when it dismissed Cole’s petition on the ground that APC that sponsored him had withdrawn its petition against Fubara’s victory, adding that the decision of the tribunal was perverse and a miscarriage of justice.
However, Justice Adegbehingbe resolved the remaining issues two, three, four and five against the appellant and held that the lower tribunal was right when it dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
On the admission of some documents by the lower tribunal, the court held that the APC candidate did not demonstrate to the court what he suffered and how the wrongful admission of some documents affected the decision of the lower tribunal.
Consequently, the court held that the appeal lacked merit and dismissed it accordingly.
The court also dismissed the appeals filed by LP’s candidate, Itubo, that of Ekwu of the APM and that of Lulu Briggs Dumo of Accord Party for lacking in merit.
The court held that the allegations of substantial non-compliance with the electoral law in the conduct of the elections were not sufficiently proven by the appellants in their case.
Conclusively, the appellate court upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal and affirmed the election of Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the March 18 governorship election.
