The Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal
sacked Nyesom Wike as governor of Rivers State
on Saturday and ordered a fresh poll.
The tribunal, headed by Suleiman Ambrosa,
delivered its ruling in Abuja. It did not give a time
limit for a new election to be conducted, possibly
because the judgment could be appealed by the
respondents.
Mr. Wike and his party, the Peoples Democratic
Party, said they would challenge the ruling.
The petition challenging the election of Mr. Wike
as Rivers governor was filed by Dakuku
Peterside, the candidate of the All Progressives
Congress in the election.
The Rivers governorship election, which was
criticised by local and international observers,
witnessed widespread violence before and after
the elections.
The presiding judge, Mr. Ambrosa, said the
petitioners, Mr. Peterside and the APC, called 56
witnesses, while the respondents, Mr. Wike and
INEC, called 24 and 16 witnesses respectively.
The PDP, also a respondent, called no witness.
The petitioners submitted three issues for
determination.
According to the tribunal, Governor Wike’s major
argument was that most of the petitioners’
witnesses gave “hearsay” evidence.
He also argued that the petitioners should have
proven wrongdoing at each polling unit, instead
of calling only a few polling units agents.
Mr. Wike also argued that non-usage of card
readers could not be grounds for nullifying the
election.
The PDP argued that the petitioners accused the
military of crimes, but did not join the armed
forces in the case.
The party also argued that non-usage of card
readers could not be grounds of nullification of
the election.
The APC candidate, Mr. Peterside, said the
election was marred by intimidation of voters,
non-availability of result sheets, snatching of
electoral materials, non-collation of results at
wards and local government levels.
In reaching a decision, the tribunal adopted only
one issue for determination – whether the
petitioners had proven their case.
The tribunal dismissed preliminary issues
concerning its competence raised by the
respondents.
It concluded that the evidence of the petitioners’
witnesses were relevant and reliable.
It ruled that INEC had the power to insist on
card readers.
“It is not open to anybody to act otherwise,” the
tribunal chairman, Mr. Ambrosa, said. “We don’t
see any conflict between the introduction of card
readers and the provisions of the Electoral Act.”
According to the tribunal, Exhibit A9 presented
by the petitioners, which is a report by the head
of election monitoring team of INEC office in
Rivers State, Charles Okoye, confirmed the
allegations of the petitioners.
He said a simple glance at the results (Exhibit
A10) showed that the election was not
conducted in substantial compliance with the
Electoral Act.
The tribunal said the character of witnesses
called by Mr. Wike had been impugned under
cross-examination.
Mr. Wike’s witnesses dodged questions under
cross-examination and refused to answer
questions on documents the petitioners
confronted them with, the tribunal stated.
“We are in agreement that the evidence of the
witnesses of Wike and INEC is incredible and
unreliable,” the tribunal said, before nullifying the
election, saying the petitioners had proven their
case.