The Supreme Court will today, deliver a judgment on
whether or not the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which
nullified the election of Governor Nyesom Wike on Saturday had the jurisdiction
to hear the case against the governor.
The Justice Mohammed Ambrosa-led tribunal had on Saturday
nullified Wike’s election as it upheld allegations by the All Progressives
Congress and its governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, that the election
which held on April 11, 2015 was conducted in substantial non-compliance with
the Electoral Act.
But Saturday’s judgment would amount to nullity if the
Supreme Court holds on Tuesday that the proceedings of the tribunal had been
conducted without requisite jurisdiction. Wike and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had in an
appeal filed before the Supreme Court, challenged the jurisdiction of the
tribunal on the grounds of its relocation from Port Harcourt, the capital of
Rivers State, where the election took place, to Abuja.
The appellants argued that the tribunal lacked territorial
jurisdiction to hear the petition by the APC and Peterside in Abuja.
Dissatisfied with the ruling of the tribunal which affirmed that its relocation
to Abuja because of security concerns was in order, Wike had appealed to the
Court of Appeal.
The governor, who lost the appeal at the Court of Appeal,
took his case to the Supreme Court.
Source
The PUNCH
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