The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the suit by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike challenging the jurisdiction of the Rivers governorship election petition tribunal to hear a petition by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Dakuku Peterside outside the state in Abuja.
Wike had argued that the tribunal in Abuja had no jurisdiction over matters that transpired in the state, contending that the tribunal should have sat in Rivers State and not Abuja. However, the tribunal was moved to Abuja on grounds of security concerns, like those of Akwa Ibom, Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.
The Appeal Court had earlier ruled that the tribunal could sit in Abuja to handle Rivers election petitions.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by Wike challenging the jurisdiction of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that on Saturday, annulled the April 11 gubernatorial poll that brought him to power.
In their judgment Tuesday morning, a seven-man panel of Justices of the apex court led by Justice John Fabiyi, held that the panel that sacked Wike was properly constituted and the venue of its sitting made no difference in view of the security challenges the panel faced in the state.
The apex court maintained that the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Zulkachuwa acted within her power when she relocated the tribunal from Rivers State to Abuja.
According to Justice Amiru Sanusi who read the lead judgment, “evidence abound that there was serious security challenges prevailing in Rivers State which therefore called for the doctrine of necessity to be adopted.”
The apex court held that the relocation of the tribunal to Abuja was to safeguard the lives of the Chairman and members of the panel that heard the petition that was lodged against Wike by the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
“I am unable to see any merit in this appeal and I hereby dismiss it without any order as to cost,” Justice Sanusi held.
All the other members of the apex court panel also concurred with the lead verdict.
In the tribunal’s ruling on Saturday, it sacked Wike as governor of the state, and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold a fresh election within 90 days.
Following this ruling, the political temperature in the state has since risen a few bars as the ruling APC and the opposition PDP have been engaged in a war of words over the credibility of the judicial ruling.
PDP, in a strong-worded statement by Chief Olisa Metuh, its National Publicity Secretary on Saturday, asked PDP “supporters and lovers of democracy across the country to rise up and use all lawful means to resist anti-democratic forces, now using the judiciary and security agencies in their desperate scheme to subvert the will of the people and destroy the nation’s democracy.”
Further details soon….
