In a lawsuit filed by Patrick Tonye-Cole, the APC’s candidate for governor of Rivers State, the All Progressives Congress says it has challenged the ruling of the Election Tribunal located in Abuja, which upheld the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The three-member panel of the tribunal dismissed Tonye-Cole’s appeal for lack of merit, citing, among other reasons, his inability to independently contest Governor Fubara’s victory outside of his political party.
In a Daily Post interview, APC State Publicity Secretary Darlington Nwauju verified that Tonye-Cole is planning to appeal the tribunal’s decision to the Appeal Court.
He said,
“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 stated that the constitution has clearly given candidates of political parties the right to challenge the outcome of some electoral matters, adding that candidates now have an independent right different from the political parties.