BEVERLY HILLS, October 24, (THEWILL) – In what appears as a change of fortune, the Rivers State election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja, Saturday, cancelled the April 11 governorship election which produced Barrister Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor of the state.
The tribunal headed by Justice Suleiman Ambursa, while nullifying the election, said the exercise made mockery of democracy.
He however ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election with 90 days.
In the judgement which lasted for about three hours, Justice Ambursa noted that the exercise was characterized by thuggery throughout the state, even as the Tribunal held that Wike was wrongly declared winner because of non compliance with Elector.
The tribunal also held that the allegation of intimidation, harassment, snatching of ballot boxes, ballot papers, lack of result sheet , late arrival of election materials, diversion of election materials, ballot stuffing, allocation of figures, non collation of result, failure to use card readers were all established by the petitioners.
The tribunal also held that the petitioner adduced credible evidence and documents to prove his allegation.
“The witnesses called by the respondent became unreliable during cross examination. They betrayed their character. Even INEC officials who came as witnesses at a point claimed ignorance of their own document.”
“The second respondent was not duly elected”, the tribunal held.
The PDP however said it would challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal.
Trouble started after the election when the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the election, Peterside Dakuku, approached the tribunal challenging the election on ground of irregularities.
All the respondents, namely INEC, Wike and PDP, had prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) defended the governorship election it conducted, urging the tribunal to uphold the election of Wike.
The commission’s counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
He said that the petitioners, the All Progressives Congress and its governorship candidate, Peterside had failed to discharge that the burden of proof placed on them to substantiate their claim that election did not take place in the state on April 11.
However, counsel to the PDP, Chris Uche ( SAN), said that the party would test the popularity of the judgment in the court of appeal and possible Supreme Court.
According to him, “It was wrong of the tribunal to lay heavy weather on the use of card reader when INEC itself admitted that both card reader and manual can be used where there are challenges.”
Uche further faulted the judgment on the ground that the parties adopted their brief in less than 48 hours and judgment delivered.
But Dakuku said the Rivers people are happy with judgment and that it has given them an opportunity to vote for who they want.
According to him, the petitioners failed to prove their allegations polling unit by polling unit.
He said that the few witnesses called by the petitioners were not participants in the election and that their testimonies counted for nothing as already established by the Supreme Court in plethora of cases.
He said the soldiers, mobile policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) invited by the APC gave generic and contradictory evidence which had no relevance in relation to voting at the polling units.
He urged the tribunal to hold that their testimonies were unreliable.
The INEC counsel declared that on the premise of the Supreme Court judgment in the case between Buhari and Obasanjo, INEC guidelines could not supersede the Electoral Act.
He further argued that the Electoral Act did not limit accreditation to card readers alone.
He added that the reports tendered by the Rivers State APC were rejected by INEC before Wike was returned as winner of the election. He said such reports were no longer tenable.
But the petitioners led by their counsel, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi, SAN, urged the tribunal to grant the reliefs sought in their petition.
He asked the tribunal to hold that there was no election in Rivers on April 11, 2015.
He said the petitioners had discharged the burden of proof placed on them and that the onus had since shifted to the respondents.
He said though the card readers did not replace the voters registers, they were vital to credible accreditation.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit and substance.
