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Court orders INEC to replace Lulu-Briggs as Rivers AP guber candidate

By Kelvin Ebiri (Port Hacourt) and Abiodun Fagbemi (Ilorin)
01 March 2019   |   4:03 am
A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has ruled that Dumo Lulu-Briggs is not the duly nominated gubernatorial candidate of Accord Party (AP) in the state.

Lulu-Briggs

AbdulRazaq vows to repeal Kwara pension law
A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has ruled that Dumo Lulu-Briggs is not the duly nominated gubernatorial candidate of Accord Party (AP) in the state.

The court, therefore, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enlist Precious Baridoo as the state’s Accord Party authentic governorship candidate.

Ruling on the suit filed by Baridoo to challenge Lulu-Briggs’ nomination, Justice Emmanuel Obile declared that the plaintiff was duly nominated during the party’s October 4, 2018 governorship primary and as such, he was the authentic candidate.

Justice Obile asserted that Lulu-Briggs could not participate in the governorship election because he was not duly nominated at the primary.

He said Lulu-Briggs did not participate in the party’s October 4, 2018 governorship primary and to that extent, he could not be candidate in the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.

He noted that the defendants failed to challenge the affidavit of the plaintiff to controvert the facts contained therein.

Justice Obile, therefore, ordered INEC to enlist Baridoo, as the Rivers State governorship candidate of the Accord Party.

The court also directed INEC to remove Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ name as the state governorship candidate of Accord Party.

Reacting, Baridoo’s lawyer, Mr. Wori Wori, described the judgment as victory for democracy, saying the rules of political engagement should be respected.

But an aide to Lulu-Briggs told The Guardian that they would challenge the judgment at the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, Kwara All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has said he would repeal the law granting pensions to former governors and free up resources for development if elected governor.

He urged the people to not only vote for him but for all APC candidates in the House of Assembly on March 9, 2019.

“We need to change some terrible laws. We will repeal the obnoxious pension law when we get into office,” AbdulRazaq said during his campaign at Omu-Aran in Kwara South and in Pategi in Kwara North.

“It is a privilege to become governor of a state. It is dubious for anyone to become governor and then earn pension more than people who served the state for their entire lives.

“We can’t take that anymore. But we need enough lawmakers to push through the repeal of the offensive law,” he stated.

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