A'Court Sacks PDP Senator, Declares APC’s Uchendu As Winner of Rivers East Election

The Abuja Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed by Senator George Sekibo of the PDP challenging the judgment of the Rivers State National Election Tribunal which removed him as Senator representing Rivers-East Senatorial District.

Delivering its judgement on Thursday, the three-member appeal panel led by Adamu Jauro ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to withdraw the certificate of return from Sekibo and give same to Andrew Uchendu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Sekibo contested the December 2016 Rivers legislative rerun polls as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was then announced as the winner by INEC, after a confrontation that almost caused bloodshed at the Port Harcourt City Hall.

The tribunal had in June nullified Sekibo’s election, stressing that Uchendu earned the majority of lawful votes cast and that there was substantial non-compliance with the electoral law in the process of the poll.

But Sekibo approached the Appeal Court, expressing dissatisfaction with the tribunal’s ruling, an appeal which the higher court said lacked merit as it did not show facts as to why the decision of the lower court should be set aside.

The three-man panel of the Appeal Court noted that the ousted lawmaker only reproduced his closing remarks at the end of the hearing at the tribunal, but did not challenge the decision reached by the tribunal.

The panel also held that according to the law, the court has no business considering it where an issue is not challenged.