ABUJA—The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, reserved judgment in the appeal by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
Wike, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is praying the appellate court to set-aside the verdict of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the outcome of the April 11 governorship poll that brought him to power.
Respondents in the appeal are the All Progressives Congress, APC, its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the PDP.
Wike is praying the appellate court to upturn the judgement that was delivered against him by the Justice Ambrosa Suleiman-led tribunal on October 24, saying it was “perverse and legally defective.”The matter was reserved for judgement after all parties adopted their final written addresses, yesterday.
In the appeal by his counsel, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, Wike formulated 26 grounds he said the appellate court should consider in determining whether or not the verdict of the tribunal was anchored on the weight of evidence laid before it, as well as on sound interpretation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
Wike told the appellate court that he was dissatisfied with the entire judgement of the lower tribunal.
He also wants the appellate court to “strike out or dismiss the election petition filed on May 3, 2015, by Mr. Peterside and the APC as petitioners at the tribunal.“
Among other grounds, Wike argued that the tribunal erred in law when it relied on hearsay and inadmissible evidence to nullify his election.
He insisted that the finding and conclusion of the tribunal was not supported by evidence before the court.
According to him, “The Governorship Election Tribunal for Rivers State erred in law when it refused to follow the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kakih vs PDP (2014) 5-NWLR which was duly cited to it to the effect that a party who makes non-voting or misconduct of an election the pivot of his case must call at least one disenfranchised voter from each of the polling booths or units or stations in the constituency.”
Governor Wike also appealed on the ground that the tribunal nullified his election on the basis of Card Reader accreditation, even though the Electoral Act recognised manual accreditation.
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