Rivers governor loses bid stop hearing apcs petition tribunal

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, on Monday, lost in his bid to stop the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja from hearing the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, in the April 11, 2015 governorship election, challenging his election.
The three-member panel of the tribunal, headed by Justice Muazu Pindga, dismissed Wike's motion challenging the power of the tribunal to sit in Abuja instead of Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The tribunal ruled that the motion brought before it by Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lacked merit and substance and consequently dismissed it.
Wike and PDP had filed an application challenging the powers of the president of the Court of Appeal to allow the tribunal to sit in Abuja instead of the state where the election in dispute was conducted.
They claimed that the sitting of the tribunal in Abuja was in breach of Section 285 (2) of the 1999 Constitution and provisions of the Electoral Act 2010.
In the motion argued by Chief Godwin Obla (SAN) on their behalf, they asked the tribunal to relocate to Port Harcourt in compliance with provisions of section 258.
However, in his ruling, Justice Pindiga held that the tribunal had not violated any provision of the law since the relocation to Abuja was based on security reasons.
The judge disagreed with Wike's claim on proximity and accessibility as the two major factors that ought to have determined the venue of the sitting, adding that proximity and accessibility cannot be determined in the absence of security of the tribunal members and litigants.
He said the president of the Appeal Court acted within the ambit of the law which, he said, laid emphasis on conducive atmosphere for the tribunal to hold proceedings.
The APC and its governorship candidate had dragged Governor Wike and his party (PDP) before the tribunal challenging his declaration as the elected governor of the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Peterside, who joined INEC as co-defendant in the petition, alleged that the election was marred with irregularities, fraud, violence and malpractices and prayed for the cancellation of the poll for a fresh one to be conducted by the electoral body.