{"id":171452,"date":"2024-01-15T17:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T16:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/?p=171452"},"modified":"2024-01-15T17:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T16:56:19","slug":"cole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/cole\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court reserves judgment in Tonye Cole\u2019s appeal against Fubara\u2019s election"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on the appeal filed by Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking to void the election of Rivers State Governor,\u00a0Siminalayi Fubara\u00a0<\/a>of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).<\/p>\n

Cole was the candidate of the APC in the last governorship election in Rivers State, in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returned Fubara as the winner.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a five-member panel of the apex court, presided over by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, after taking final arguments from lawyers to parties, reserved judgment till a later date to be communicated to them.<\/p>\n

Appellants\u2019 lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) prayed the court to allow the appeal, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal and grant the reliefs sought.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) for Fubara and Joseph Daudu (SAN) for the PDP prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

Cole and the APC are, by the appeal, seeking to set aside the November 28, 2023, judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Fubara\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

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The appellants are claiming, among others, that the election was marred by irregularities, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, and that Fubara did not resign before the election as required by the Constitution.<\/p>\n

They alleged that Fubara continued to sign documents as the Rivers State\u2019s Accountant-General after he was nominated as the PDP governorship candidate for the election; allegations the governor has continued to make.<\/p>\n

The court also dismissed an appeal by the candidate of the Allied People\u2019s Movement (APM) in the election, Innocent Kere after his lawyer applied to withdraw it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cole seeking to void the election of Rivers State Governor,\u00a0Siminalayi Fubara\u00a0of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":171459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,4],"tags":[32,51,124,65781,6858],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court reserves judgment in Tonye Cole\u2019s appeal against Fubara\u2019s election | New Mail Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cole seeking to void the election of Rivers State Governor,\u00a0Siminalayi Fubara\u00a0of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newmail-ng.com\/cole\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court reserves judgment in Tonye Cole\u2019s appeal against 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