Appeal court reserves ruling on Senator Sekibo’s dismissal

The efforts of the senator representing Rivers East constituency at the National Assembly, George Thompson Sekibo, to have the Appeal Court annul his dismissal was on Monday put on hold as the appellant court sitting in Abuja reserved judgment in the matter.

The court decision came after lawyers to the parties in the suit adopted their respective written briefs for their arguments.

Sekibo was dismissed by Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal last June. The tribunal chairman, Justice Goddy Anunihu, in the judgment dismissed and ordered that the lawmaker be immediately replaced with Andrew Uchendu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

It held that Uchendu was the winner of the senatorial election and directed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should withdraw the certificate of return it issued to Sekibo and issue another certificate to Uchendu.

The tribunal based its ruling on the submission that Uchendu won the lawful majority vote cast during the Rivers re-run legislative election.

However, Sekibo had approached the appellate court to upturn the decision of the tribunal.

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The suit with Appeal number: CA/A/EPT/487/2017, dated July 20, 2017 and filed same day by his counsel, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) contained 23 grounds upon which the judgment of the tribunal is been challenged.

When the matter came up in court on Monday, both Senator Sekibo and Uchendu were present in court.

After listening to the argument of different lawyers in the matter, the three-man panel headed by Justice Adamu Jauro said that judgment in the appeal would be given in a date to be communicated to parties in the matter.

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