Tribunal Reserves Judgment as INEC Defends Rivers Guber Election

APC wants election set aside, Wike, PDP affirm credibility of poll

Electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday stoutly rose in defence of the governorship election it conducted in Rivers State on April 11, 2015, urging the state election petitions tribunal to uphold the election of Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The commission’s counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN while adopting his written address, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.

He said the petitioners, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside had failed to discharge that the burden of proof placed on them to substantiate their claim that election did not take place in the state on April 11.

According to him, the petitioners failed to prove their allegations polling unit by polling unit.

He said the few witnesses called by the petitioners were not participants in the election and that their testimonies counted for nothing as already established by the Supreme Court in plethora of cases.

He said the soldiers, mobile policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) invited by the APC gave generic and contradictory evidence which had no relevance in relation to voting at the polling units.

He urged the tribunal to hold that their testimonies were unreliable.

The INEC counsel declared that on the premise of the Supreme Court judgment in the case between Buhari and Obasanjo, INEC guidelines could not supersede the Electoral Act.

He further argued that the Electoral Act did not limit accreditation to card readers alone.

He added that the reports tendered by the state APC were rejected by INEC before Wike was returned as winner of the election. He said such reports were no longer tenable.

But the petitioners led by their counsel, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi, SAN urged the tribunal to grant the reliefs sought in their petition.

He asked the tribunal to hold that there was no election in Rivers on April 11, 2015.

He said the petitioners had discharged the burden of proof placed on them and that the onus had since shifted to the respondents.

He said though the card readers did not replace the voters registers, they were vital to credible accreditation.

However, the PDP urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit and substance.

In his submission, counsel to the PDP, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) noted that the petition was incompetent, pointing out that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to amend the petition of the APC, especially the reliefs already abandoned by the party.

He stated that while the petitioner alleged several cases of violence and abduction of voters, the petitioners failed to lead any evidence in that direction or call any witness to prove their claim.

Similarly, Wike called on the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove the several allegations against his election on April 11, 2015.

His lawyer, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, declared that the APC governorship candidate, Mr. Dakuku Peterside was not qualified to contest the April 11 election because his nomination contravened Section 85 (1), of the Electoral Act.

He cited the case of Wike V Labour Party wherein the Appeal Court held that Section 85 (1) of the Electoral Act is critical to the nomination of a candidate.

He said the petition is not properly before the tribunal because the Rivers State APC gubernatorial candidate was not duly nominated.

Ukala said that the failure of the petitioner to call witnesses who conducted the election was fatal to his case.

He said out of the 5,792 forms available for the conduct of governorship election, the Rivers State APC only tendered about 3000 forms contrary to the law which stated that all the forms be tendered.

The Justice Suleiman Ambrosaled tribunal adjourned for judgment on a date to be communicated to the parties.