Tribunal dismisses LP’s petition contesting Fubara’s victory in Rivers

The Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja has thrown out the petition filed by the Labour Party governorship candidate in the state, Beatrice Itubo, contesting the election of Simnalayi Fubara of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Labour, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and their candidates filed a petition before the tribunal following the declaration of Fubara as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

Fubara was declared the winner after polling 302,614 votes to defeat his closest rival, Tonye Cole of the APC.
Cole scored 95,274 votes, while Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Itubo placed third and fourth with 46,981 and 22,224 votes, respectively.

On September 13, the tribunal reserved judgment on the petition filed by Cole seeking the nullification of Fubara’s victory.

The Justice Cletus Emifonye-led three-member tribunal adjourned the matter for judgement after the parties adopted their final written addresses and presented their arguments for and against the petition.

But ruling on the LP’s petition on Monday, the tribunal dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

Also, the tribunal threw out the LP’s petition for failing to prove their allegations.