THE Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal has pudismissed the petition brought by the All Progressive Congress (APC), following the departure of the party’s counsel.
With this withdrawal, Tonye Cole, the APC’s governorship candidate, is the sole petitioner against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its candidate, Fubara Siminalayi.
Cole is challenging Siminalayi’s victory in the state governorship election in March.
At the Tribunal, the APC applied for a change of counsel in their petition against the PDP and its candidate.
When the case began, the APC’s attorney, Solomon Umoh, informed the Tribunal that he would be taking over as the party’s counsel following a motion for change of counsel before the tribunal.
Umoh also told the court that his clients wanted their names removed from the petition as applicants.
The former attorney for Cole, Jibrin Okutepa and the APC, told the Tribunal that the party had not briefed him on the latest development.
However, the three-member panel led by Justice Cletus Emifoniye allowed the application for change of counsel as well as the motion as sought by taking out the name of the APC as a petitioner.
The APC’s withdrawal was brought pursuant to order 9 rule 15 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2019.
One of the grounds for the application amongst others is that “there is the need to seek the leave of this Honourable Tribunal to strike out the name of the 2nd petitioner/applicant, as the applicant has no intention to participate in this petition.”
No date has been fixed for the commencement of the pre-hearing of applications before the Tribunal.
