Rivers Guber Election: APC Candidate Appeals Tribunal’s Decision

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State, Mr. Tonye Cole, has filed an application before the Court of Appeal in Abuja, challenging the decision of Tribunal’s ruling which dismissed his petition against the outcome of the March 18 poll in the state.

In a letter addressed to the Deputy Chief Registrar, Court of Appeal, Abuja Division and signed by Umar Abubakar, yesterday,  it was disclosed that the appeal was registered in suit number CA/ABJ/EP/GOV/RV/121/2023.

The letter which was titled “Transmission of record of Appeal in EPT/RV/GOV/10/2023:Cole Tonye  Patrcik Vs. INEC & 2 ors”, explained that all parties have been duly served with both the Notice of Appeal and the Record.

The letter further stated “Respectfully, I hereby forward 10  hard copies of Record of Appeal for volumes 1 -4 each, including Four (4) unbounded, Two (2) Soft/Scanned copies in hard disk (CD), for the use of their Lordships before the Court of Appeal”.

Meanwhile, the APC in the state has expressed full support to its gubernatorial candidate as he approach the Court of Appeal for justice in the 2023 elections in the state.

The Publicity Secretary of the party, Darlington Nwauju, who spoke with THISDAY yesterday, expressed the hope that the Court of Appeal will be able to reverse the tribunal’s  judgement in favour of the party’s candidates.

Nwauju said: “I can authoritatively confirm to the media that today, October 24, 2023, that our governorship candidate, Tonye Patrick Cole has entered an Appeal against the ruling of the Governorship/National Assembly

“We do pray and hope that the Court of Appeal and the Judiciary will be able to serve justice to the people of Rivers State and to the memories of all those who were killed for their political beliefs, for following and supporting the APC in Rivers State.

“We pray we will get justice and as a law abiding political party, we will always abide by the decisions of the court. However, we want to draw attention and remind Nigerians to the fact that some of the grounds for dismissing the petition at court of first instance, are unacceptable and does not make sense even to the common man.

“Even with the fact that in Section 133 of the Electoral Act Sub 1, clearly given right to candidates of election to challenge outcome of election and have an independent right different from that of political parties. So the Tribunal told Nigerians that Arch. Cole does not have the right to challenge the outcome of the Governorship election in Rivers State which is contrary to what the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.

“That Tribunal decision is also contrary to the ruling of the Supreme Court in a case brought before it by Buhari against Obasanjo in suit number SC/194/2003, which clearly define the powers of a candidate of a political party and also gives equal power to both the political party and candidates to challenge the decision of the court on an election.

“So, we hope the Court of Appeal will be able to reverse the ugly trend of trying to adjudicates on the decision of a higher court, especially the Supreme Court.”