Rivers ADP drags INEC, Wike, PDP to election tribunal
Ikili Oghu, Port Harcourt
The Rivers state chapter of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the election tribunal, challenging the victory of incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike in the just concluded governorship election in the state.
Also joined in the suit are the governor-elect, incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The party’s governorship candidate in the state, Mr. Victor Fingesi made this known to newsmen over the weekend in a media chat with journalists in Port Harcourt the state capital.
The candidate, who vowed that his party was prepared to pursue its petition at the tribunal to its logical conclusion, even to the highest court of the land said that “we are asking the tribunal to nullify the election and order for a fresh election.
This is because anybody who is the governor in a democratic dispensation carries the sacred mandate of the people.
“No matter the expediency, he must have majority of lawful votes and the process and procedure must comply to the laws of our land.
No attempt should be made in any guise to turn election as merely filling a vacuum and impose anybody on Rivers people as governor.”
Fingesi added that his party submitted its petition before the tribunal on April 18, few days before the expiration of the deadline for the filing of election petitions and pointed out that “we know that a lot of Rivers people and other stakeholders are not happy with INEC and the return of Wike as the governor-elect, which we are challenging as not been substantially in compliance with the Electoral Act.”
Although, we could not contact the election petition tribunal secretary to ascertain the number of petitions before the tribunal, our correspondent gathered that the ADP petition may be the fourth as the tribunal had received petitions from the Labour Party (LP), African Action Congress (AAC) and another party whose name could not be immediately confirmed.
