Nigeria Election: Wike, Ganduje’s Victories Under Threat

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.”