Rivers APC Moves To Appeal Court For Judgement By Tribune

The Rivers State branch of the All Progressives Congress, APC in has appealed the judgment of the Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja which upheld the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party, in a petition brought by the Governorship candidate of the APC, Patrick Tonye-Cole.

The tribunal dismissed Tonye-Cole’s petition because he did not have the power to challenge Governor Fubara’s victory without his political party’s support. The tribunal also found that the petition. lacked merit

The State Publicity Secretary of APC, Darlington Nwauju confirmed that Tonye-Cole has moved for the Appeal Court to challenge the judgement of the tribunal.

He stated that , “I can authoritatively confirm to the media that our Governorship candidate, Pastor Architect Patric Tonye-Cole, MNI, has entered an appeal against the ruling of the governorship and National Assembly tribunal for Rivers State.

“The records of this particular matter has been compiled and transmitted and a suit number allocated.

“We do pray and hope that the Court of Appeal and indeed the judiciary will be able to serve justice to the people of Rivers State and to the memory of all those who were killed for their political beliefs, for following and supporting the APC in Rivers State.”

“We pray that we will get justice from the court, and as a law abiding political party, we will always abide by the decisions of the court.

“However, we want to draw attention and remind Nigerians to the fact that some of the grounds for dismissing the petition that was entered at the tribunal, which was the court of first instance, are grossly unacceptable and does not make sense even to the common man, ” He added.

According to him, The constitution gives candidates the right to challenge some electoral matters, independent of their political parties. In other words, candidates have their own rights that are separate from those of their parties.