The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, has struck out an appeal filed by the candidate of the Action Democratic Party, ADP, Victor Fingesi, against the re-election of Governor Nyesom Wike for lacking in merit.
The court, in a unanimous judgment, affirmed the decision of the Rivers State election that the petition was incompetent, lacked merit, and did not prove that there were any irregularities in the conduct of the March 9, governorship election.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, the Court of Appeal agreed with the Tribunal that there was no evidence of any alleged inflation of results, as the evidence remained vague adding that the burden of proof was strictly on the petitioner and not on any weakness of the defence of the respondents.
The appellant, she stressed, failed to prove his assertion leaving the court with no choice but to strike out his petition.
The Court of Appeal also agreed with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the March 9 Rivers State governorship election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court held that the INEC has the powers to suspend an election in line with section 26 subsection one of the Electoral Act.
The panel of five justices, in a unanimous decision, struck out the appeal on the grounds of incompetence and lack of merit.
The Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, had on October 5, 2019, dismissed the petition filed by Fingesi against the re-election of Wike as Governor of Rivers State.
The Tribunal had ruled that the petitioner lacked the locus standi to file the petition and held that inconsistent facts contained in the petition filed by the ADP candidate made it incompetent.
It declared that the petitioner, who score 1860 votes, failed woefully to prove that Wike did not score the highest number of lawful votes during the March 9 governorship election.
Justice K.A. Orjiakor described the petition as vague and merely speculative saying that the first petitioner did not know the number of registered voters in the state.
The Tribunal further stated that the ADP candidate, under cross-examination, admitted that he had no knowledge of the number of registered voters in his own polling unit in Okrika Local Government Area.
Justice Orjiakor described the allegation that the winner did not score the highest number of votes as an invitation to compare figures, adding that the petitioner ought to plead his own results and that of the winner for the court to cross-check.
