Hearing of the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, was yesterday stalled following the inability of the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to file their response for pre-hearing session.
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Counsel to the PDP, Mr. Goddy Uche, told the Justice Muazu Pindiga-led tribunal that they needed time to file their responses.
Also, counsel to other respondents were seen at the registry of the tribunal trying to file their processes.
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Wike and PDP had earlier challenged the decision of the tribunal to sit in Abuja while describing as lame, the excuse of insecurity that the president of the Court of Appeal relied upon to locate the tribunal in Abuja.
They claimed that the sitting of the tribunal in Abuja was in breach of Section 285 (2) of the 1999 Constitution and provisions of the Electoral Act 2010. The tribunal had since overruled him.
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The tribunal had last week’s Wednesday dismissed four of the five petitions filed to challenge the election of Chief Nyesom Wike as the governor of the state.
The APC and its governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, filed the only surviving petition challenging the declaration of Wike as the winner of the April 11 election.
Though, one of the four petitions marked EPT/RV/GOV/05/2015 was voluntarily withdrawn by the petitioner, Kemka Elenwo, who was KOWA Party’s governorship candidate in the election, the three others were dismissed on technical grounds based on the application by Wike and the PDP.
The Justice Mu’azu Pindiga-led tribunal on Wednesday dismissed the fourth petition marked EPT/RV/GOV/03/2015 that was filed by Minaibim Harry of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on the grounds that the petition was incompetent.
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