October 24, 2015 – Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja has nullified the election of Governor Nyesom Wike.
Wike won the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). The tribunal thereafter ordered a rerun of the governorship election in Rivers State.
He will now contest the election with candidate of the All Progressive Congress(APC), Dakuku Peterside who was his major contender in the April 2015 elections.
The three-member tribunal, which has Justice Suleiman Ambursa as chairman said the election was flawed.
While reading the judgement, the tribunal held that the petitioners successfully proved their case that the election was conducted in total disregard to electoral guidelines.
He said that the process of accreditation for the election was compromised with the use of incident forms rather than adherence to card reader.
“It is the view of the tribunal that the election was held contrary to guidelines.While we agree with the second respondent’s (Wike) position that card reader was just introduced, but the usage of the card reader is to complement voter register.
“The election was in total disregard to guidelines, the issue of accreditation in election cannot be compromised.
Even, some of the witnesses of the respondents said they were not aware of the use of card reader for the election,’’ he said.
Reacting after the judgement, Counsel to the PDP, Chris Uche, (SAN) described the judgement as unacceptable and that he will go on appeal.
