Supreme Court Rules In Favour Of Fubara
The Supreme Court has on Thursday , January 25, 2024, described the appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole, as lacking in merit and by the ruling dismissed his appeal against the People's Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the March 18, 2023 governorship election, Siminalayi Fubara as Rivers State governor.
The Supreme Court has on Thursday , January 25, 2024, described the appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole, as lacking in merit and by the ruling dismissed his appeal against the People's Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the March 18, 2023 governorship election, Siminalayi Fubara as Rivers State governor.
Tonye Cole and the All Progressives Congress (APC), filed an appeal against the election of Siminalayi Fubara as Rivers State governor.
In his appeal, Cole, who was the APC candidate in the March 18, 2023, election, said the victory of Governor Fubara, was against the electoral laws because he did not resign as the accountant general of Rivers State, before the election.
He equally alleged irregularities, non compliance with the Electoral Act, corrupt practices among others.
Cole further called for the reversal of the judgements of the Court of Appeal and the Tribunal, which upheld the declaration of Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)as the winner of the Rivers Governorship Election.
The Appeal Court had on 28th November, 2023, dismissed his appeal for lacking sufficient and convincing evidence but having not satisfied with the decision of the Appeal proceeded to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos had affirmed the election of Fubara as the Rivers State governor.
The appellate court had in a unanimous decision, affirmed the judgment of the election tribunal, dismissing four separate appeals filed by Cole, Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party (LP), Innocent Ekwu of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), and Lulu Briggs Dumo of the Accord Party.
However, the Supreme Court on Thursday, affirmed the victory of Fubara as the duly elected governor of Rivers State.
The Supreme court held that the appellant did not prove the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act among others.
According to the supreme court, the appeal was incompetent and it dismissed it.
Recall that the PDP candidate had polled 302,614 votes to defeat his closet rival Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 95,274 votes while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Senator Magnus Abe, and Labour Party (LP)’s, Beatrice Itubo came a distant third and fourth with 46,981 and 22,224 votes, respectively.
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