The Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has refused the application filed by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the competence of a petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside.

In the petition, the APC and its candidate are challenging the victory of Wike of the PDP.

Delivering its ruling, the tribunal, headed by Justice Muazu Pindiga, held that the petition was competent and that it complied with section 18(1) of the Electoral Act.

At the resumed hearing, the tribunal went straight to deliver the ruling it reserved in the previous week, bothering on the competence of the petition filed by the APC.

Lack Of Merit

According to the Tribunal, the petition is competent and had not fallen short of the law in any form.

The tribunal also held that the payment of the Pre-hearing Notice Fee was not compulsory, as claimed by the Governor and his party in their application to warrant a dismissal of an entire suit.

The three-man panel led by Justice ‎Pindiga held that the applicants failed to persuade the tribunal with the issues raised.

It therefore threw out the application for lack of merit.

Done with the ruling, the Tribunal entertained other applications by all parties in the suit.

These include an application seeking an order of the Tribunal that would mandate the Independent National Electoral Commission to move the election materials used for the April 11 governorship election to the headquarters of the commission in Abuja to enable the petitioner inspect them.

Another application was an order seeking to stay execution of the ruling of the Tribunal made on June 11 which permitted the APC and its candidate to inspect the materials used for the election.

Ruling in the applications have been fixed for August 19.