RVHA Rerun: Appeal Court Sacks Miller …Orders INEC To Issue Adonye Diri Fresh Certificate Of Return

The Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday sacked a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Opobo/Nkoro Constituency, Mr Andrew Miller of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was declared winner of the March 19, 2016 rerun in the state.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by the Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel, the Appeal Court nullified the certificate of return issued to Miller by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The panel ordered INEC to issue a fresh one to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the rerun, Mr Adonye K. Diri.

The Appeal panel which described the March 19, 2016 election as “massively rigged” in favour of the APC and Miller made the consequential orders after setting aside the judgement of the Rivers State Election Tribunal which earlier affirmed the election of the APC and its candidate.

The PDP and its candidate had filed their petition before the tribunal contending that the APC’s candidate declared as the winner of the poll did not receive the highest lawful votes.

The petitioner contended that the figures were inflated in favour of the APC and its candidate.

But the tribunal in its judgement had dismissed the petition on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove the alleged tampering with the authentic election results and who actually altered the results.

The PDP and Adonye Diri further appealed to the Court of Appeal asking for an order setting aside the judgement of the tribunal.

In the judgement, read by Justice George Mbaba yesterday, the Court of Appeal said the election was ‘massively rigged’ with figures fraudulently altered across the 11 wards in the Opobo/Nkoro constituency of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Justice Mbaba held that results of the election were altered with figures fraudulently inflated and allocated to the APC in the various wards.