The Court of Appeal in Abuja has sacked George Sekibo as Rivers East Senator, upholding an earlier ruling of the Rivers National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal.
The three-member appeal panel led by Adamu Jauro delivered its judgement on Thursday.
Consequently, the appellate court 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 resulted in bloodshed at the Port Harcourt City Hall.
In June, the tribunal nullified Sekibo’s election, saying 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.
However, on Wednesday, the appeal court upheld the ruling of the tribunal, thereby halting Sekibo’s Senate career which started in 2007.
