The All Progressives Congress and its
candidate in the April 11 governorship election, Dr. Dakuku Peterside,
have accused the Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, of evading service
of the processes of their election petition seeking the nullification of
the results of the poll.
The petitioners made the allegation,
through their counsel, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), at the inaugural
sitting of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in
Apo, Abuja on Wednesday.
Akeredolu said all attempts by the bailiff of the court to effect service on Wike had been futile.
He then urged the court through an ex
parte application to allow the petitioners to serve Wike through a
substituted means of pasting the process on the wall of his house to
avoid unnecessary delay of proceedings.
In a short ruling, the Justice Muazu
Pindiga-led tribunal, granted the prayer of the petitioners and ordered
that substituted service be effected on the respondent either by pasting
the court processes on the gate of his house or that of the PDP
secretariat in Rivers State or in Abuja.
He said the efforts to serve the court
papers on the governor-elect failed due to the alleged non-cooperative
attitude of the people in Wike’s Port-Harcourt and Abuja homes.
Akeredolu said that the court bailiff had
on a number of occasions visited Wike’s residences in Abuja and Port
Harcourt but was always turned back at the gate by the governor-elect’s
agents when they found out the bailiff’s mission to serve court
processes.
The former President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, however, said that he could not establish “whether it was
Wike that instructed his agents not to accept service”.
After granting an order of substituted
service, the panel then adjourned the case but stated that it would
communicate the next hearing date to parties to the petition.
Through their petition, Peterside and the
APC are challenging the victory of the PDP candidate on grounds of
alleged irregularities and massive rigging that characterised the
election.
Other defendants in the petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP.
There are four other petitions challenging Wike’s election before the tribunal.
The other petitioners are Charles Harry
of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Tonye Princewill of the Labour
Party, Kemka Elenwo of KOWA Party and Minaibim Harry of the Social
Democratic Party.
Earlier in his inaugural speech, the
chairman of the panel, Justice Pindiga, had appealed to parties and the
media to cooperate with the tribunal in the discharge of its duties.
Pindiga promised that the tribunal would be just and fair to all parties in all the five governorship petitions.
The tribunal is statutorily required to determine the five petitions within 180 days from the day of filing.
The tribunal chairman said the three-man
panel would work from Monday to Saturday in order to ensure that all the
petitioners are disposed of within the time allowed by law.
In his reaction, Akeredolu who spoke on behalf of other lawyers, thanked the tribunal for the assurances.
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