Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
There is tension among supporters of the 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, following the Appeal Court’s decision to reserve judgment in the dual citizenship case involving him.
A Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday reserved judgment in a suit challenging the disqualification of Rivers APC governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, from contesting the polls.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and her 2023 governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, had gone to the Appeal Court to challenge the disqualification of the latter by Justice Emmanuel A. Obile of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, on the grounds of his dual citizenship.
However, after hearing both sides in CA/PH/579/2022 (APC v. People’s Democratic Party & Ors) and CA/PH/584/2022 (Tonye Cole v. People’s Democratic Party & Ors), the Appellate Court reserved judgment for a date to be communicated to the parties subsequently.
That decision, TPCN gathered, did not go down well with Tonye Cole’s supporters and APC members, as they had expected a quick ruling to enable them to know their candidate’s fate.
The investigation also revealed that they are expecting a favourable judgment that will ensure the participation of Cole in the forthcoming governorship election.
The citizenship case is the latest in a series of litigations brought against Tonye Cole and his party by the PDP in a bid to knock them out of the governorship race.
But in what appears to be a smile of luck, Cole and the APC have managed to survive PDP’s legal onslaughts.
Whether the Abonnema-born architect and politician will scale through this seeming last legal hurdle remains to be seen.
