GOVERNOR WIKE'S ELECTION WAS NULLIFIED TODAY,BY THE ELECTION TRIBUNAL IN RIVERS STATE.

                                                                     According to some pressmen,today saturday,the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal for Rivers State nullified the election of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers for non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.The Tribunal sitting in Abuja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC] to conduct fresh governorship election in the state within 90 days.The three member tribunal,presided over by Justice Suleiman Ambursa,gave the orders in its judgment in a petition filed against the election of Wike by the All Progressives Congress {APC} and its candidate in the April 11 election in the state,Dr Dakuku Peterside.In the Judgment,which was read by Ambursa for about three hours,the tribunal held that the petitioners successfully proved their case that the election was conducted in total disregard to electoral guidelines.The process of accreditation for the election was compromised with the use of incident forms rather than adherence to card reader.''While we agree with the second respondent's{Wike} position that card reader was just introduced,but the usage of the card reader is to complement voter register.The election was in total disregard to guidelines,the issue of accreditation in election cannot be compromised.Even,some of the witnesses of the respondents said they were not aware of the use of card reader for the election''.Ambursa also said that some figures given by the witnesses of Wike contradicted the figures presented by PDP while defending the case.''We are in agreement with the petitioners that the evidence presented by the respondents were unreliable.The respondents on their part were unable to defend the allegations in the petition.The petitioners have proved their case as required by the law that the second respondent was not validly elected''.Meanwhile,Councel to the PDP,Chris Uche,{SAN} has said that the decision of the tribunal was unacceptable and it would lodge an appeal.He said the provision of the law,the decision of the tribunal notwithstanding,the governor would remain in office pending the decision of the appeal court and the Supreme Court on the matter.One more photo below.