Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the two appeals filed by the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike challenging  the decisions of the Court of Appeal, to upturn the dismissal of a petition filed by the African Action Congress (AAC) and its candidate in the last governorship election, Awara Biokpomabo Festus.

Delivering judgments yesterday, a seven-man panel of the court unanimously upheld the two appeals by Wike on the grounds that they were meritorious.

In the appeals marked: SC/1111/2019 and SC/1112/2019,  Gov. Wike had challenged the decisions of the appellate court.

Justice Ejembi Eko who wrote and delivered the lead judgments in both appeals agreed with the appellant and allowed the appeals on merit.

The Rivers State governorship tribunal had rejected the application by a lawyer engaged by Awara to amend his processes and file additional ones, on the grounds that the lawyer had been debriefed by the AAC, which earlier engaged him (the lawyer) to prosecute the petition jointly filed by the party and its candidate.

The AAC subsequently withdrew from further prosecuting the petition, following which the tribunal proceeded to dismiss it on the grounds that it was deemed abandoned, the petitioners having failed to file a valid notice of pre-hearing session.

When the matter went on appeal,  the Court of Appeal, Port-Harcourt reversed both decisions of the trial tribunal and held among others, that the dismissal of the petition was wrong. In addition, the appellate court also held that the tribunal ought to hear the petition to conclusion, and therefore wrongly declined jurisdiction.

Delivering judgment on the first  appeal, Justice Eko held that the lawyer was wrong to have attempted to change the original case by seeking to amend processes even when he was out of time.

In the second judgment, in the appeal marked: SC/1112/2019, Justice Eko held that the tribunal was right to have dismissed the petition pursuant to Section 285(8) of the Constitution, on the grounds that there was no valid application filed for pre-hearing session, as required under Paragraph 18(4) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act (EA), which regulates the proceedings of the tribunal.