•Wike, APC trade words over judgment
ONDO State governor and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Monday, said there was hasty judgement delivered by the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja which sacked Governor Nyesom Wike last Saturday.
Mimiko, who stated this in Akure, Ondo State capital while reacting to the last judgement, described it as embarrassing but said PDP would continue to win election in Rivers State even if conducted more than 100 times.
Mimiko frowned at the circumstances surrounding the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal which was not allowed to sit in Port Harcourt, while the chairman of the panel was also removed.
Mimiko said: “We all know the circumstances surrounding the Rivers State tribunal. You recall that for unjustifiable cause, that tribunal was not allowed to sit in Port Harcourt. It was taken to Abuja and along the line, the chairman of the tribunal got changed.”
He said the tribunal continued to sit in Abuja despite challenging its jurisdiction at the Supreme Court and wondered the rationale behind the hasty judgement when the Supreme Court will give judgement in the next few days.
The Ondo State governor noted that written addresses of the two parties were adopted on Thursday, while notice of the judgement was given barely 24 hours after the adoption that the judgement will be given on Saturday.
“The judiciary is supposed to be the last bus stop of common man, for the underprivileged, even the privileged for that matter. Don’t forget, along the line, the DSS arrested the INEC commissioner while the case was going on.
Mimiko, however, said the party leadership would meet soon to take a position on the fate of the opposition over the judgement.
Meanwhile, the battle rages on over the nullification of Wike’s election as the Rivers State governor said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is under illusion if it thinks it can take over the reins of governance in the state.
However, APC picked up the gauntlet as it challenged the governor to test his popularity by going to the poll, instead of challenging the tribunal’s ruling.
It will be recalled that the Rivers State Elections Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, had, on Saturday, voided the victory of Wike at the last April election, saying the exercise did not comply with the Electoral Law.
However, the governor, in a statement issued by his special adviser on media and publicity, Sir Opunabo Inko-Taria, on Monday, said what the tribunal did was a miscarriage of justice.
“Selective justice is tantamount to injustice. However, that APC will occupy the government house is a mirage and shall remain a fleeting illusion.
“The insidious verdict is a fad and after savouring the euphoria of the victory with a short life span, they will come to terms with reality.
“The tempest of justice cannot blow fitfully in our tribunals. I have the settled conviction that sagacity shall eventually prevail...
“The mandate freely given to Governor Nyesom Wike by the electorate can never be stolen under any guise. His refreshing initiatives and policy articulations have helped refuel the ethos of good governance within four months,” he said.
The governor also described as laughable the allegation by his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, that he (Wike) borrowed N45 billion for personal enrichment.
“Amaechi himself, in one of his speeches, said Governor Wike will inherit an empty treasury which was fleeced dry by him.
“Therefore, if Wike who inherited an empty treasury could achieve the level of infrastructural development we are witnessing today and can also clear the pecuniary but unjustifiable liabilities he inherited from Amaechi, as evinced in his speech, where then did he get the money from?”
However, Rivers APC chairman, Dr Davies Ikanya, in another statement, described as “sorrowful lamentations” the criticism of the tribunal ruling, both by Wike and PDP, noting that it could not have been otherwise.
“While these lamentations are understandable, we strongly condemn the reckless utterances of Wike and Rivers PDP that tend to impugn the integrity of the tribunal,” he said.
He claimed that both local and international observers, including the European Community, had condemned the Rivers governorship and other elections as “an exercise in impunity, lawlessness and criminality which can only be applauded by mindless and demented persons.
“The truth is that the verdict of the Justice Mohammed Ambrosa-led tribunal was very much in order and consistent with the facts presented before it by APC and other bodies that participated in that election.
Tribune.
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