The petition of Fidelis Obu was on Tuesday struck out by a three-man local government election tribunal led by Mark Chukwu in Port Harcourt.
Obu was an aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party for the June 16 local government election who claimed to have contested the ward six councillorship primary in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State but was unlawfully substituted by the State Independent Electoral Commission through the aid of his party.
Responding to Obu’s petition, the PDP and RISIEC separately filed motions bordering on jurisdiction and irregularities before the tribunal against the petitioner.
Ruling on the respondents’ applications, the tribunal upheld the prayers of RISIEC and the PDP and dismissed the petition on the grounds of jurisdiction.
Speaking on the outcome of the ruling, lawyer to RISIEC, Dike Udenna hailed the decision of the tribunal, describing it as appropriate.
He said: “The petition of Obu contains a lot of irregularities. It does not have the number of endorsement as required by law. The tribunal also does not have jurisdiction to entertain the petition because Obu’s issue was purely a pre-election matter.”
Also, the petitioner’s counsel Nerissa Obiecheton said they will study the ruling to decide if they will appeal the decision of the tribunal or not.
“Though we were not 100 per cent sure of victory. The tribunal has taken its decision. We will study the content of the ruling to decide the next step to take,” Obiecheton noted
