The Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal has struck out the petition filed by the African Action Congress governorship candidate in the 2019 general election in Rivers State, Biokpomabo Awara, against Independent National Electoral Commission, Governor Nyesom Wike and Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP)
Earlier, the tribunal struck out applications by the AAC Governorship Candidate, seeking that he be separated from all joint applications previously made with the party.
Recall that the AAC recently adopted Mr Henry Bello to represent it at the tribunal after the former counsel, Tawo Tawo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria withdrew from the matter, with a notice of change of counsel presented to the tribunal.
This application came in after the AAC brought in another counsel to handle its matter at the tribunal.
The three man panel led by Justice K. A Ojiako, after going through arguments in the Awara, AAC suit against Governor Wike ruled that all applications filed by the 1st Petitioner (Tawo Tawo, former AAC counsel) are struck out.
The parties in the matter had argued that the application be dismissed following its incompetence.
Ojiako noted that the application by the petitioner ( counsel for Awara; Mustafa Ibrahim) has been found to be an abuse of court process.
The panel also struck out the application filed by the petitioner for pre-hearing of the matter.
The implication of the ruling is that Awara as it stands has no pending application against the respondent before the tribunal.
Scannews
