Tribunal: Rivers Election a Mockery of Democracy

Nullifies Wike’s governorship, orders fresh poll in 90 days Wike: I remain governor, will appeal up to Supreme Court APC: Judgement a deadly blow to impunity and hooliganism

The Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja yesterday nullified the April 11 governorship election in the state, describing the poll as a “mockery of democracy.” The tribunal was giving its verdict on a petition filed by the All Progressives Congress candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, against the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Nyesom Wike, as winner of the election. In the judgement that lasted nearly three hours, the three-man panel headed by Justice Suleiman Ambrosa held that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the poll, as vote rigging, violence, and other irregularities reigned. It said Wike was wrongly declared winner, and ordered INEC to conduct a fresh governorship election in the state within 90 days.

The tribunal held that the petitioner, Peterside, had adduced credible evidence and documents to prove his allegations.

According to Ambrosa, “The witnesses called by the respondents became unreliable during cross examination. They betrayed their character. Even INEC officials who came as witnesses at a point claimed ignorance of their own documents.

“The second respondent was not duly elected.”

The ruling was swiftly followed by reactions by the parties.

PDP dismissed the verdict as an “immoral judgement” by a “compromised” jury. It vowed, in a statement signed

by Jerry Needam, who is the special adviser on media and publicity to the Rivers PDP chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah, that the electoral panel’s decision will be challenged at the Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court. PDP boasted that Wike remained governor until the legal exercise was concluded.

This was as the national publicity secretary of PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh, also accused the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal of bias. Metuh said in a release yesterday that the tribunal’s ruling was “completely bizarre, unacceptable and part of the script by the APC to manipulate the will of the people.” He alleged that the verdict on the Rivers State governorship poll, just like the one on the Akwa Ibom election last Wednesday, would not stand.

Wike was quoted as telling journalists at the Port Harcourt airport after arrival from Abuja, “What I can say is that the tribunal has given its own verdict, but we know that by the special grace of God, that is not the verdict of God. Nobody can take your mandate.”

He appealed for calm, saying, “I am still the governor of Rivers State.

“Our lawyers are going on appeal; we are all going on appeal. There is also the Supreme Court. We believe that we have a good case.”

But APC hailed the ruling as a “deadly body blow to impunity and hooliganism,” in a statement by the party’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. It said the judgement clearly brought out the fact that there was no shortcut to credible elections, stressing that it is part of the regime of change being led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In his own reaction, Peterside said the people of Rivers State were happy with the judgement, saying it has given the people the opportunity to elect a governor of their choice.

During the adoption of addresses, INEC had defended the governorship election it conducted and urged the tribunal to uphold the election of Wike. The commission's counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, (SAN), urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition by APC. Ikpeazu argued that the petitioners had failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them to substantiate their claim that election did not take place in the state on April 11. He said Peterside and APC failed to prove their allegations polling unit by polling unit.

Ikpeazu said that 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 a plethora of cases.

The defence counsel alleged that the soldiers, policemen and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) invited by APC gave generic and contradictory evidences that had no relevance to the voting process 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 judgement in the case between Buhari and Obasanjo, the INEC guidelines could not supersede the Electoral Act. He argued that the Electoral Act did not limit accreditation to card readers alone.

Ikpeazu added that the reports tendered by the Rivers State APC were rejected by INEC before Wike was returned as winner of the election. He said such reports were, thus, 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 State on April 11, 2015, stressing that the petitioners had discharged the burden of proof placed on them and that the onus had since shifted to the respondents.

Olujimi said though the card readers did not replace the voter register, 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. He pointed 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 petitioners alleged several cases of violence and abduction of voters, they failed to lead any evidence in that direction or call any witness to prove their claim.

In a similar vein, Wike called on the tribunal to dismiss the petition of the APC candidate on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove the several allegations against his election on April 11, 2015. His counsel, Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, declared that the Rivers State APC governorship candidate, Peterside, was not qualified to contest the April 11 election because his nomination contravened Section 85 (1) of the Electoral Act.

Ukala cited the case of Wike vs Labour Party where the Court of Appeal held that Section 85 (1) of the Electoral Act was critical to the nomination of a candidate. He said the petition was not properly before the tribunal because the Rivers State APC governorship 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 maintained that out of the 5, 792 forms available for the conduct of the governorship election, the Rivers State APC only tendered about 3,000 forms, contrary to the law which stated that all the forms be tendered.

But upholding the petition, the tribunal held that the respondents failed to prove that the election was conducted in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

Ambrosa stated, “In the circumstance, we are satisfied that the petitioners have proved their case that the Rivers State governorship election held on April 11, 2015 was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

“The first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, is hereby ordered to conduct fresh election.”

Wike has 21 days, from the date of judgement, to file an appeal, and the law says he can continue to act as governor upon filing a notice of appeal against the ruling.

The governor said he was sure of victory should the Supreme Court call for a rerun. Addressing his supporters at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, who had come to receive him yesterday evening, Wike said, “All the gang-up in Abuja is against Rivers State, but we must protect the interest of the state and our people. If they like let them use all the powers they have, I'm still governor of Rivers State.”

Faulting the judgement, Wike argued that by that verdict, the tribunal had overruled a superior court, explaining that the Court of Appeal has ruled in the case of Lagos State that the card reader is not part of the Electoral Act.

“Now the tribunal is ruling otherwise,” he alleged. “They can say anything but the interest of Rivers people must be protected. Nobody can intimidate me to leave this cause.”

He added, “If we go to the Supreme Court and they say we should do election, we will do so and we will win. But we will protect this mandate you have given us.”

Counsel to the PDP, Chris Uche, SAN, said machinery had been set in motion to challenge the judgement on appeal. Addressing journalists after the verdict, Uche said Wike remained governor until the appeal processes were exhausted.

He said, “By virtue of section 143 of the Electoral Act, our candidate, the governor, will remain in office until this matter has gone the whole hog to the Supreme Court.

“This is the first tier in the judicial ladder. We have instructions, because this judgement has raised several issues that must be tested on appeal. We still have the Court of Appeal; we still have the Supreme Court.”

Uche said the nature of the judgement delivered by the Ambrosa-led tribunal made appeal vital, as the new position adopted by the tribunal must be tested in the interest of justice. He said the tribunal’s reliance on card reader accreditation to nullify the governorship election needed to be tested at the Court of Appeal.

The PDP lawyer added that it was shocking that less than 24 hours after lawyers on all sides submitted nine written addresses and documents, the tribunal sent notice that judgement would be delivered on Saturday morning. He alleged that the tribunal had seven days to deliver its judgement, but it chose to do a hasty job.

Uche said the tribunal was aware that the Supreme Court judgement on its jurisdiction to sit outside Rivers State would be delivered on Tuesday.

In the statement by Metuh, PDP alleged that it had alerted the country and the international community months ago to an alleged plot by the APC government to use the judiciary and the security agencies to reverse the victory of the PDP in Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Taraba and Abia states.

It stated, “We invite Nigerians and the international community to recall various reprehensible steps taken by the APC government that culminated in this ruling as well as the ridiculous Wednesday’s verdict of the Akwa Ibom State governorship election tribunal, also sitting in Abuja.”

PDP alleged "the curious and controversial relocation of the elections tribunals from their states to Abuja without any justification” and "the constant juggling of judicial officers and members of governorship elections tribunal in PDP states, especially, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states,” as deliberate steps taken to take over PDP states.

The party noted that while it was convenient to use legal technicalities to deny PDP victory in Imo, Lagos, Ogun and Yobe states, “the same rules were misapplied to wickedly favour APC petitioners in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.”

Drawing a parallel between what obtained under the immediate past PDP-led federal government and the current APC-led government, the party said, “Nigerians would want to recall that under the PDP-led government with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s commitment to the tenets of democracy as encapsulated in the safeguard of ‘one man one vote’ and the independence of the judiciary, the PDP conceded electoral defeat in Edo, Anambra, and Imo states without attempting to collect victory through executive manipulation of the judicial process.”

However, APC believed the ruling yesterday was a blow to the regime of impunity the PDP administered. Mohammed stated, “What has come across from this judgement is that there is no shortcut to free, fair and credible elections. This is part of the wind of change that is blowing across the land and touching all arms of government under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Elections are about the expression of the will of the people, and they must always be free to express themselves, irrespective of what some desperate politicians may feel.”

APC said politicians, especially those seeking or occupying elective office, must realise that they can only derive their legitimacy from the people, and without respecting the wishes of the people, they will not go far.

The party hailed its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Peterside, for his doggedness and strong conviction in the pursuit of his petition against the election of Wike which it said “was not only marred by widespread violence and electoral malfeasance, but also acknowledged to be so by local and international observers – and now by the judiciary.”