By Ken Afor
The appeal filed by the Allied People’s Movement (APM) against the election victory of Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The appeal was withdrawn by the counsel for the APM and its candidate in the March 18 election, Innocent Kere, during the proceedings on Monday.
The five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has also reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Patrick Tonye-Cole.
The apex court subsequently dismissed the appeal, following a thorough consideration of the arguments presented by Tonye-Cole and APC.
Tonye-Cole, along with several others, is asking the apex court to remove Fubara from office, claiming that the governor failed to resign as the state’s Accountant General within the timeframe specified by the constitution and the Electoral Act.
However, Fubara’s election was upheld by the lower courts following the dismissal of all the appeals filed.
It would be recalled that Governor Fubara, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 302,614 votes to emerge winner of the election.
Tonye Cole of the APC his closest challenger, polled 95,274 votes.
Magnus Abe, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, had 46,981 votes while Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party (LP) got 22,224 votes.
