The Supreme Court has just announced Siminalayi Fubara as the duly elected Governor of Rivers State.
Patrick Tonye-Cole, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 elections in Rivers State, had challenged Fubara’s victory in the poll after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced Fubara as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in the state.
However, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court has now upheld Fubara’s election victory.
The panel in the lead judgment delivered by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa certified Fubara’s election not long after it waived the appeal by Tonye-Cole for being inadequate and lacking in merit.
Justice Saulawa had said that the appellant had not proven his allegations of over-voting, non-compliance and non-qualification of Fubara to contest the election.
In his words:
“This appeal is greatly lacking in merit and is liable to be dismissed and it is accordingly dismissed”.
Afterwards, the apex court confirmed the coincident judgments of the two lower courts which had previously dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
