The Rivers State Governorship Election petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has dismissed the petition filed by the governorship candidate of Labour Party, Beatrice Itubo challenging the Election of Simnalayi Fubara of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
The three-member Tribunal panel led by Justice Cletus Emifonye dismissed the petition for lacking in merit and for failing to prove its allegations.
Beatrice Itubo in her petition is challenging the election of Simnalayi Fubara on grounds of Non-qualification, Non-compliance and electoral malpractices, failing to transmit the election results electronically and not being duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
She said Fubara was not qualified to contest the March 18 Governorship election as he was still the Accountant general and permanent secretary to the ministry of finance in Rivers State.
Responding to the petition the Respondents counsel had asked the tribunal to dismiss the entire petition for being incompetent and for constituting an abuse of court process as the allegations of non-qualification falls under pre-election and the Tribunal lacks jurisdiction to entertain the case.
They argued that the petition was filed out of time as it was filed after 21 days required by law to file the petition.
The court however ruled that on the issue of the petition being filed after 21 days, the petition was filed within time excluding the date the results was declared on 20th March to the date the petition was filed which was on 10th April.
The Tribunal resolved the issue of Non-qualification against the petitioners and ruled that the petitioners failed to present the resignation letter of Fubara as the Accountant general and permanent secretary to the ministry of finance in Rivers State, his employment letter or his payments slip to show he was still receiving Salary from the said office.
The Tribunal also resolved the issue of non-compliance, against the petitioner and held that there was no admissible evidence presented by the petitioners or the 10 petitioners witnesses as the witnesses testified that they were not physically present in the over 6000 polling units in Rivers state except the polling units where their votes where cast.
On the issue of corrupt practices, the tribunal ruled that the petitioner failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt their allegations as the pleadings has no place to stand, this issue was also resolved against the petitioner.
Justice Emifonye also resolved the issue of Transmission of polling unit results electronically in favor of the Respondents.
The Tribunal also resolved the issue of acquiring the majority of lawful needed votes cast against the petitioner for failing to provide an alternative results aside from the results presented by INEC which declared Fubara Winner.
The Tribunal after resolving all the issues raised by the petitioners, dismissed the entire petition for lacking in merit and for being incompetent.
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(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
