In a case that was submitted by the candidate for governorship of the All Progressives Congress, Patrick Tonye-Cole, the Election Tribunal in Abuja upheld Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the election.
The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has announced that it will be appealing the decision of the Election Tribunal.
The three-person panel of the tribunal came to the conclusion that the petition of Tonye-Cole did not have sufficient value and so dismissed it.

One of the reasons they gave for this decision was that Tonye-Cole lacked the authority to unilaterally dispute Governor Fubara’s victory without the support of his political party.
In an interview with the Daily Post, the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Darlington Nwauju, stated that Tonye-Cole had headed for the Appeal Court to dispute the verdict of the tribunal.
In his words, “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 tribunal is responsible for determining who would serve as governor of Rivers State and who will represent the state in the National Assembly.
“The records pertaining to this specific matter have been collated and transmitted, and a case number has been assigned.
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 convictions, for following and supporting the APC in Rivers State. “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.”
“We pray that the court will do what is right for us, and as a political party that is committed to upholding the law, we will always abide by the decisions that the court makes.”
“However, we want to draw attention to and remind Nigerians of 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 noted that the candidates of political parties have been clearly given the power to question the outcome of some election proceedings by the constitution, and he added that candidates now have an independent right that is apart from the political parties.
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