Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has filed an appeal at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, asking the court to set aside the judgment of the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal which nullified his election on October 24, 2015.
In a notice of appeal dated November 3, 2015 and filed same day by his lawyer, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), the governor raised 26 grounds of appeal upon which he sought to set aside the tribunal judgment.
The governor is challenging the entire judgment.
He joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as respondents.
He asked the court to allow the appeal and to make an order setting aside the judgment/decision of the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal.
He further urged the Court of Appeal to make an “order striking out or dismissing the petition filed on May 3, 2015 by Peterside and the APC.”
The governor in his notice of appeal stated: “Take notice that the appellant being dissatisfied with the decision of the Governorship Election Tribunal for Rivers State sitting in Abuja, contained in the judgment of the tribunal led by Justice Suleiman Ambrosa (chairman), Justice Wesley Ibrahim Leha (member) and Hon. Justice Bayo Taiwo (member ) sitting in Court No. 23 of the FCT High Court dated October 24, 2015, doth hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal upon the grounds set out in paragraph 3 and will at the hearing seek the reliefs set out in paragraph 4.”
Wike among other grounds noted that the tribunal erred in law when it relied on hearsay and inadmissible evidence to nullify his election.
He added that the finding and conclusion of the tribunal was not supported by evidence before the court.
The governor stated in his notice of appeal: “The Governorship Election Tribunal for Rivers State erred in law when it refused to follow the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kakih vs PDP (2014) 5 NWLR which was duly cited to it to the effect that a party who makes non-voting or misconduct of an election the pivot of his case must call at least one disenfranchised voter from each of the polling booths or units or stations in the constituency.”
Wike also faulted the tribunal’s decision nullifying his election on the basis of card reader accreditation even though the Electoral Act recognised manual accreditation.
According to him, the proof of accreditation of voters under the law is by the production of the register of voters bearing the indications of the presiding officer as to the persons accredited to vote and not by card reader report.
The governor said: “The tribunal wrongly neglected, failed and refused to abide by and follow the binding decision of the Court of Appeal in APC vs Olujimi Agbaje : Appeal No: CA/L/EP/GOV./751A/2015 (unreported ) delivered on 26th August, which was duly cited to it and thereby came to a wrong conclusion.”
He added that the petitioners at the tribunal failed to disclose any reasonable cause of action against the respondents and the tribunal failed to conduct a pre-trial conference after the removal of the first chairman, hence the tribunal erred in its judgment.
The governor stated: “The tribunal wrongly countenanced the testimony of delegates of subpoenaed witnesses which basically constitutes an indirect alteration of or addition to the statement of facts of the petition without the leave of the court. The testimony of these witnesses runs counter to the pleaded case of the petitioners and contradict the rest of the evidence of the petitioners witnesses in several material particulars.”
