Supreme court dismisses Wike’s suit against tribunal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, dismissed the suit filed by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, challenging the jurisdiction of the Rivers governorship election petition tribunal to hear a petition by candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dakuku Peterside.

In his argument, Wike had argued that the tribunal sitting in Abuja had no jurisdiction over matters that transpired in the state, contending however, that the tribunal should have sat in Rivers State and not Abuja.

However, the tribunal was moved to Abuja on the ground of security concerns, like those of Akwa I‎bom, Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.

The appeal court had earlier ruled that the tribunal could sit in Abuja to handle Rivers election petitions.

Recall also that in its ruling on Saturday, the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal, had sacked Wike as governor of the state, and ordered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold a fresh election within 90 days.

Following this ruling, the political temperature in the state has since risen a few bars as the ruling APC and the opposition PDP have been engaged in a war of words over the credibility of the judicial ruling.

National Leadership of the PDP, in a strong-worded statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Saturday, however asked PDP “supporters and lovers of democracy across the country to rise up and use all lawful means to resist anti-democratic forces, now using the judiciary and security agencies in their desperate scheme to subvert the will of the people and destroy the nation’s democracy.”