Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers
State has emerged victorious again after the Supreme Court struck out a suit
challenging his eligibility to run in the last governorship election in State.
In two unanimous judgments on
Monday morning, a five-man panel of the Supreme Court upheld two appeals by
Wike, with which he challenged the leave granted to Elvis Chinda by the Court
of Appeal.
Chinda, in a suit he filed before
the Federal High Court, challenged, among others, the authenticity of the birth
certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
and prayed the court to disqualify Wike from contesting the last governorship
election.
Earlier this year, just before
the governorship election in the State, the Federal High Court dismissed the
suit, a decision Chinda appealed at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
Chinda later discovered that his
notice of appeal was wrongly addressed to the Federal High Court as against the
Court of Appeal, and applied for leave to amend.
The Governor objected to the
amendment sought by Chinda on the grounds that he applied to amend, outside the
time allowed by law for him to appeal the judgement of the Federal High Court.
The Court of Appeal disregarded
Wike’s objection and granted the amendment sought by Chinda, a decision Wike
appealed before the Supreme Court in two appeals marked: SC/606/2019 and
SC/607/2019.
In its lead judgment authored by
Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, but read by Justice Paul Galumje, the Supreme Court
set aside the leave granted Chinda by the Court of Appeal to amend his notice
of appeal.
The court held that the amendment
granted outside the time allowed for the appellant to file his appeal,violated
Paragraph 14(4) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court proceeded to
allow both appeals filed by Wike and struck out the notice of appeal filed by
Chinda before the Court of Appeal, which it said was defective.
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