The African Action Congress (AAC) has asked the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the African Action Congress (AAC) Governorship Candidate, Engr Biokpomabo Awara, against the election of Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for lacking in merit.
\nThe demand came, last Wednesday, just as the tribunal Chairman, Justice Kingsley Orjiako, announced that the tribunal has reserved judgment following the adoption of final written addresses by all the parties in the case.
\nThe AAC sponsored the Awara during the March 9, 2019 governorship election in the state.
\nCounsel to the AAC, Henry Bello while adopting the party\u2019s final written address, last Wednesday, urged the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to place value on the video clip tendered, which showed the declaration of Wike as the winner of the March 9, 2019 Governorship election after due collation of results.
\nThe AAC explained that their decision to call for the dismissal of the petition by Awara was borne out of the party\u2019s commitment to the truth.
\n\u201cA lawyer should not promote a case which to his knowledge is false. Every iota of their case is made in falsehood. Therefore, counsel for the party presenting the truth before the tribunal deserves commendation.
\n\u201cMy Lord, I want the court to rely eminently on the evidence of PW21. His evidence and the video played lay credence to PW21 evidence.
\n\u201cI, Henry Bello on behalf of the 2nd respondent (AAC) hereby consent to the dismissal of this petition\u201d, he added.
\nSubmitting the PDP\u2019S final written address, Ahmed Raji (SAN) urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition, considering the prayers by the 2nd Petitioner (AAC) that the petition be dismissed.
\nHe submitted that the witnesses of the petitioners had agreed that election was peaceful in the state.
\n\u201cIn reaction to the petitioner\u2019s response dated September 27, 2019, I rely on the due process. and urge the court to dismiss the petition in the sense that the 2nd petitioner clearly considered, and admitted that the petition should be dismissed.
\n\u201cNot a single witness of the petitioner was called from the polling unit; it was either ward agent or state agent. They said the election was peaceful, free and fair.
\n\u201cThe first petitioner has not presented to the court any other separate result other than the result presented by the 1st respondent (INEC)\u201d.
\nHe added: \u201cWe seek the court to dismiss the petition, which is from a disunited house, even from the onset. We will not want a disunited house to come and cause commotion in the state\u201d.
\nIn his final written address, Wike through his counsel, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) adopted the position of the PDP.
\nHe added that petitioner called witnesses that contradicted his petition, therefore, there should be no basis to further debate the matter.
\n\u201cAlthough the petitioner purport to challenge the governorship election, evidence of the petitioner\u2019s witnesses PW21 and PW22 and video clip confirmed the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike in the election.
\n\u201cIt is important to state that the PW21 is the state collation of both petitioners. Even though the 1st petitioner claimed the PW21 is an imposter, he never produced any other that stood in his place. The political party appoints the collation agent and there was no challenge by the party that he was the state collation agent.
\n\u201cPW21 made it clear that the 2nd petitioner actually accepted the result as was signed by the party agent. When a political party signs a result, it is not legal to bring such result as a matter in court.
\n\u201cThey have shown that there is no basis to go further with the petition. There is no law for a party calling witnesses that contradict themselves or the petition.\u201d
\nThe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
\nCounsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Steve Adehie (SAN) said
\n\u201cWe adopt all the preliminary arguments and urge the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
\n\u201cWe adopt the evidence of the PDP, Governor Wike and our own argument. It is true we did not call witnesses but we led evidence through the witnesses. All the witnesses that testified admitted that they have no problem with the results as declared by INEC.
\n\u201cAs an exhibit Q1 tendered PW20 result sheets and PW21 also confirmed the final results by INEC.
\n\u201cIf all the witnesses admitted the results as declared by INEC then why are we here. This tells that they have no case to protest. We are urging this court to dismiss this case with substantial cost\u201d.
\nBut, the AAC Governorship Candidate, Engr Biokpomabo Awara urged the tribunal to grant his reliefs.
\nCounsel to Awara, Emenike Ebete told the court to nullify the election and order for rerun.
\nThe tribunal Chairman, Justice Kingsley Orjiako said that all the parties would be informed when the judgment would be delivered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The African Action Congress (AAC) has asked the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the African Action Congress (AAC) Governorship Candidate, Engr Biokpomabo Awara, against the election of Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for lacking in merit. The demand came, last Wednesday, just as the tribunal Chairman, Justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-216539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix","tag-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/216548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}