Wike loses again; Supreme court dismisses suit against Tribunal

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Nyesom Wike, embattled governor of Rivers State, whose election has been annulled by a court of law, has suffered another legal defeat.

The Supreme Court today dismissed his case against the jurisdiction of the tribunal that annulled his election on Saturday.

In the case he brought before the apex court, he argued that the Governorship Election Tribunal should not have sat in Abuja, but in Port Harcourt, capital of his state.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court upheld the decision of the two lower courts which dismissed Wike’s appeal challenging the relocation of the Tribunal from Rivers State capital to Abuja.

In a unanimous decision by seven justices of the court, the apex court said the invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity by the President of the appellate court who directed the tribunal to sit in Abuja was in order, since there was no Chief Judge or President of the Customary Court of Appeal in the State.

The apex court also said it was generally known that there were threats of insecurity, leading to the decision of the President of the appellate court to take a preventive measure of securing the life and property of the members of the Tribunal at that material time.

The court therefore dismissed Wike’s suit for lack of merit.

The apex court further stated in the lead judgement read by Justice Sanusi that the relocation of the tribunal was to protect members of the panel and as such complied with the “doctrine of necessity.”

The Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had last Saturday  nullified the election of  Wike who contested on the platform of  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the Governor of Rivers State, on grounds that his election did not comply with electoral guidelines.

The Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Suleiman Ambrosa, ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in the state within 90 days of the ruling.

Dakuku Peterside, the candidate of All Progressives Congress in the 2015 gubernatorial election had filed the suit to challenge the declaration of Wike as the winner of the poll.