Nigeria election: Wike, Ganduje’s victories under threat

Wale Odunsi Wale Odunsi

The electoral victories of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State in the 2019 Nigeria election may have come under threat of being upturned.

An indication emerged on Tuesday with the Election Tribunal in both states receiving the petitions of Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) whose governorship candidates were not included in ballot papers by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Barr. Chibuzor Ezike, PPP National Legal Adviser, protested the exclusion despite a subsisting judgement ordering INEC to include the candidates for the elections.

A statement he signed and made available to DAILY POST, recalled that PPP after nomination of its governorship candidates for the March 9 election was not allowed to submit names of nominated candidates, which led the party to drag INEC to court before the election.

“The Court delivered final judgement days before the scheduled election and ordered INEC to include our candidates to avoid exclusion”, Ezike, who is also Heads of PPP 2019 Election Petitions Legal Team noted.

“The judgement was served on INEC before the March 9 election but surprisingly, INEC went ahead in disobedience of the valid judgment and conducted the election in Kano and Rivers, excluding PPP candidates.

“This act has put the elections in those two states in legal jeopardy with a looming possibility of nullification to pave way for fresh governorship election, a situation that could have been avoided.

“The petition filing process, which was concluded today at the tribunal and already set for hearing, has petition number EPT/KN/GOV/02/2019 for Kano and EPT/RS/GOV/01/2019 for Rivers.

“It is the first petition to have been filled challenging Governor Wike’s victory, while the PPP Kano petition is the second challenging Govenor Ganduje’s victory.”

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