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| Nyesom Wike |
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday fixed March 8 to deliver judgement in the suit seeking an order disqualifying Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State from contesting the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The judgement is to be delivered barely 24 hours to the conduct of the governorship election scheduled to hold on March 9.
Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the matter for judgement after parties to the suit argued and adopted their written addresses on Tuesday.
The plaintiff, Elvis Chinda, who hails from Rivers State, had filed the suit in 2018, asking the court to disqualify Wike from contesting the forthcoming governorship election on the grounds that the governor allegedly forged his birth certificate.
The plaintiff had contended that the certificate of birth (statutory declaration of age) said to have been deposed to on October 3,1986 by one Collins Nyeme Wike from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State was forged.
According to the plaintiff, the document being contested was attached to Wike’s Form CF.001, which was presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Adopting the plaintiff’s written address on Tuesday, his lawyer, Achinike William-Wobodo, argued that as of 1986 Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State was not in existence.
He maintained that the local government in question was created in 1989 by Decree No 12 of 1989, two years after the alleged forgery was committed.
INEC’s lawyer, Mr Wale Ajayi, who filed and argued a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit, urged the court to dismiss the suit because the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it.
Wike’s lawyer, Mr Ferdinand Orbih (SAN), too asked the court to dismiss the suit on the same grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear it.
Contending that the suit qualified as a pre-election suit, Orbih argued that the suit ought to have been filed within 14 days after the governor emerged as the candidate of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
He argued that having been filed outside the 14 days provided for in the 4th Alteration of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it had become status barred.
Meanwhile, the frosty relationship between the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, deepened on Tuesday as the state Commissioner for Urban Development, Reason Onyia, and a lawmaker representing Ahoada West in the House of Assembly, Opokri Wanaka, refused to be paraded by the Army in Port Harcourt for alleged electoral offences.
The officers’ mess of the 6 Division became charged as Onyia, Wanaka, some INEC ad hoc staff and a group of youths strongly protested the attempt by the 6 Division to parade them.
Onyia and others, who were said to have been arrested on election day, maintained that the army lied against them.
Onyia, while speaking at the officers’ mess, said he was angry because the army arrested and detained him unlawfully.
Another suspect, identified as DSP Oyoku Ifelle, who is the camp commandant of Rivers State Government House, said he did nothing wrong but was picked up by the army and brought to the 6 Division.
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Aminu Iliyasu, was speaking on the alleged offences of the suspects when Onyia and others shouted that the allegations of election malpractices against them were false.
The drama, which was beamed on a national television station, also saw the army accusing the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, of trying to induce the army during the election.
But Wike, who reacted to the claim by the Nigerian Army, described the allegation that he wanted to induce the army to gain electoral advantage as mischievous and untrue.
He said, “You are aware that an Ikwerre electoral officer accused the army of involvement in the carting away of election materials. Instead of the 6 Division to defend themselves, they are accusing me of compromising the electoral process, which they have already compromised.
“Everybody has seen the way they (army) militarised Rivers State; In fact, if they had militarised the states where we have Boko Haram the way they militarised Rivers State, they would have defeated Boko Haram.”
Wike alleged that the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army was planning to cause mayhem in the March 9, 2019 governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state so that the exercise in Rivers would be cancelled and shifted to another date.
The governor urged the International Criminal Court, human rights group, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to caution the General Officer Commanding, 6 Division, Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham.
