ABUJA —The Court of Appeal sitting in
Abuja, yesterday, expunged some
paragraphs of the petition that led to the
annulment of the April 11 governorship
election that brought Governor Nyesom Wike
of Rivers State to power.


In a judgment it delivered, a three-man panel
of Justices of the Appeal Court headed by
Justice Datti Yahaya, struck out portions of
the petition alleging that security agents
were used to rig the election in favour of
Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP.


The decision of the appellate court followed
an interlocutory appeal that was lodged
before it by the APC and its governorship
candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku
Peterside.


Both APC and Peterside had gone before the
court to challenge the ruling of the previous
chairman of the Rivers State Governorship
Election Petition Tribunal panel, Justice
Muazu Pindiga, which deleted paragraphs of
the petition containing criminal allegations
against unnamed security operatives.


Justice Pindiga, who was subsequently
removed from presiding over the petition by
the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice
Zainab Bulkachuwa, based his decision on
the fact that the petitioners failed to join the
said security agents and other persons it
said participated in the alleged electoral
fraud as parties to the suit.


Among those that the APC alleged
masterminded the rigging of election in
Rivers State included wife of former
President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame
Patience.


But, dissatisfied with the ruling of the lower
tribunal, the petitioners took the matter
before the appellate court.
While upholding the decision of the tribunal
yesterday, the appeal court held that
paragraphs of the petition containing
allegations of electoral crime against named
and unnamed security agents and alleged
political thugs should be expunged from the
record of the tribunal.


The court stressed that the petitioners ought
to have joined the accused security agents
and political thugs as parties to the petition.
Specifically, the court directed that
evidences that were led against security
agents and political thugs, whether named
or unnamed, in the course of hearing of the
petition against Wike, where the said security
agents and alleged political thugs were not
joined as parties, should be struck out.


The Court of Appeal further directed that all
the criminal allegations contained in the
petition against the said security agents and
alleged political thugs be expunged as they
had no opportunity to defend themselves at
the tribunal.


The court held that in cases where criminal
allegations were made against institutions,
agents and individuals, the law required that
in the interest of justice, they should be
joined as parties to the matter.
Other members of the appeal court panel
that delivered the judgment were Justices
Tanim Yusuf and Mustapha Mohammed.

Source : http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/rivers-gov-poll-appeal-court-expunges-part-of-apcs-petition-against-wike/

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