Politics
Appeal court sacks APC Rivers Assembly member over massive election rigging
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday has nullified the Certificate of Return issued to a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Opobo/Nkoro Constituency, Mr. Andrew Miller of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over massive election rigging.
Miller, who was declared winner of the March 19, 2016 re-run in the state, was sacked owing to a unanimous judgment delivered by the Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel, who nullified the Certificate of Return issued to Miller by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and ordered the electoral commission to issue a fresh one to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) candidate in the re-run, Mr. Diri Adonye.
According to the appeal panel, the March 19, 2016 election was “massively rigged” in favour of the APC and Miller. The court therefore, set aside the judgment of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal which earlier affirmed the election of the APC and its candidate.
The PDP and its candidate had contested the declaration of the APC candidate as the winner of the election, arguing that he did not receive the highest lawful votes in a petition they filed before the tribunal. They submitted that the figures were inflated in favour of the APC and its candidate.
Read also: Fayose hints on dumping PDP as he plans on who succeeds him in 2018
However, the tribunal in its judgment had dismissed the petition on the grounds that the petitioners were unable to prove the alleged tampering with the authentic election results and who actually altered the results.
The PDP and Adonye therefore took their case to the Court of Appeal demanding for an order setting aside the judgment of the tribunal.
And on Thursday, in the lead judgment read by Justice George Mbaba, the Court of Appeal said the election was “massively rigged” with figures fraudulently altered across the 11 wards in the Opobo/Nkoro Constituency of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
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