The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, yesterday, dismissed an appeal brought by the senator representing Rivers East senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator George Sekibo, seeking for the dismissal of a judgment of the Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Rivers State.
In its judgment delivered by Justice M.D. Mohammed, the?? Court of Appeal upheld an earlier judgment of the tribunal which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a re-run into the Rivers East senatorial district within 90 days.
Justice Mohammed further held that the matter was based on evidence provided before the court which? indicated that one political party and its candidate were actually excluded from taking part in the April 9, 2011 National Assembly election in the State.
He said, “Ignoring the April 7 order of the Federal High Court by INEC was an abuse of court process. Nothing can be more devastating than to exclude a candidate, duly nominated by his political party, from an election.
“The respondent has cause to complain of unlawful exclusion from the April 9 election. The order of the Federal High Court, Abuja was served on INEC on April 8. There is no evidence of appeal. So, since the order is yet to be vacated, the judgment of the lower court is hereby upheld. INEC is under obligation to comply with the order.”
The tribunal, headed by Justice Veronica Umeh had on October 24, 2011, unanimously nullified the re-election of Sekibo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered INEC to conduct a rerun within three months
The decision of the tribunal followed petition by Mr. Leslie Chizi Michaels-Atata and his party, the Action Alliance (AA), challenging their exclusion by INEC from the election despite an order by an Abuja Federal High Court.
Michaels-Atata and his party had argued that they were validly nominated but unlawfully excluded from the poll, describing the election as invalid, by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the 2010 Electoral Acts, as amended.