Rivers Elections Tribunal In Abuja to Treat 56 Petitions

The Rivers State legislative election tribunal headed by Justice V. U Okorie began sitting  in Abuja on Monday but the governorship election petition panel headed by Justice Ayuba Kwajaffa is expected to have its inaugural sitting within the week.

One of the petitions being handled by the Justice Okorie tribunal is that of Senator Magnus Abe of the APC. In his petition, Abe is seeking the nullification of the election of Olaka Nwogu of the PDP who was declared winner of Rivers South East Senatorial poll held on March 28, 2015.

Abe is asking the tribunal to nullify the election on the grounds that it was fraught with malpractices and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

On the whole, 56 election petitions ‎have been filed before the Rivers State Elections Petitions Tribunal sitting in Apo, Abuja, and this makes the Rivers State elections tribunal to have the highest number of petitions among the other state elections tribunals sitting in Abuja.

The election tribunals of Rivers, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states are sitting Abuja on security grounds. Five of the petitions before the Rivers State tribunal were filed before the governorship election panel while the 51 other petitions were filed before the legislative houses election panel.

Among the 51 other petitions ‎were three filed by the All Progressives Congress candidates with respect to the elections into the three senatorial seats in the state.

The rest of the petitions comprise 14 petitions challenging the election into the state’s 13 House of Representatives seats and 37 others challenging elections into the 32 available seats in the State House of Assembly.

The five governorship petitioners were part of the 18 governorship candidates who contested the April 11, 2015 governorship election.

The petitioners want the tribunal to nullify the election which the Independent National Electoral Commission declared was won by Chief Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)‎.

The petitioners are Dakuku Peterside of the All Progressives Congress‎, Charles Harry of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Tonye Princewill of Labour Party‎, Kemka Elenwo of KOWA Party‎ and Minaibim Harry of the Social Democratic Party.