Court of Appeal upholds tribunal verdict on Rivers Gov., Fubara, dismisses Tonye-Cole suit

Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has upheld the ruling of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had affirmed the victory of Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Delivering its judgement, Tuesday, the three-member panel dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the March 18 governorship election, Patrick Tonye-Cole, against Governor Fubara’s declaration as winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that Tonye-Cole’s case contesting Fubara’s election as the Governor was initially dismissed by the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in October, this year.

Tonye-Cole subsequently approached the appellate court for a favourable judgement.

It is yet not clear if the APC candidate will pursue his case to the Supreme Court, as the law allows for final determination of governorship arbitration at the apex court.

Ahead of Tuesday judgement by the Court of Appeal, tension had been building up in the state following the mounting squabbles between Governor and his political godfather and predecessor, Mr Nyesom Wike, who is now the Minister of the Federal capital Territory (FCT) over issues relating to the control of Rivers State.

The squabbles led to a failed attempt earlier in the month to oust the incumbent governor by loyalist lawmakers at the State House of Assembly.

Further intervention through mediation by President Bola Tinubu to resolve the impasse between the two appear to have collapse following the renewed diatribe openly exchanged by the politicians.

Also, the political clashes has led to the dissolution of the APC executives and structure in the state which were collapsed and fused under the command of Wike who is also a chieftain of the PDP.

Similarly, several attempts by the PDP national body to sack the Rivers executive committee of the party have failed owing to court orders barring it to effect such decisions.

Presently, Wike controls executive committees of both the PDP and APC in the state.

The Tuesday judgment by the appellant court comes barely two weeks after the two parties had argued and adopted their final written addresses.

Tonye-Cole seeks the appeal  court to direct INEC to declare him the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Rivers State, just as he insisted that Governor Fubara was still signing documents as the Accountant-General of the state even after his nomination as the governorship candidate of the PDP.

The APC further a alleged some irregularities in the election, among other pleas.

Meanwhile, in another ruling delivered, Tuesday, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, also upheld the Sokoto Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal judgement which affirmed Governor Ahmed Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as duly elected in the March 18, 2023 poll in the state.

This is also as the court dismissed the appeal challenging Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as elected in the March 18 election filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Sai’du Umar.

The panel in a unanimous judgment held that the appellants failed to substantiate allegations of irregularities, noncompliance as well as non-qualification contained in their appeal.

The presiding Justice, Mbaba Bassi, who delivered the lead judgment held that having resolved all four issues raised against the appellants, the appeal lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed.

He subsequently affirmed the judgment of the tribunal which had in September dismissed the PDP’s petition for lacking in merit.

Umar and the PDP had approached the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the lower tribunal which had dismissed their joint petition for erring in law.

However, in their judgment in the appeal on Monday, the appellate court held that the tribunal was right in expunging evidence of non-compliance and other alleged irregularities and malpractices because the evidences were presented by incompetent witnesses.

The court held that even though the appellants provided documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prove the cancellation of the election in 138 polling units across the state, their failure to call witnesses from the affected polling units to speak to the documents was fatal to their case.

Justice Bassi pointed out that reliance on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022 was insufficient to prove cancellation without oral evidence.