By Brave Dickson
Following the tribunal judgment which upheld the March 18 governorship election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, the Ijaw Youth Council has called on APC, Labour Party and other parties who lost at the tribunal to work with Fubara in rebuilding the state.
IYC made the call through the Chairman of Kalabari Se-ikpangi, Edward Asikitams who also described the judgment as a win win for the people of the state.
He said, :The tribunal judgment is a win win for Rivers people. The time for politics and politicking has come and gone. We should be looking out for good governance where the dividends of democracy will be practically demonstrated in every facet of life.
“We expect governor Fubara to be magnanimous in victory by forming a government for the people not his political party where all Rivers sons and daughters will enjoy the dividends of democracy.
“Yes, the candidates whose petitions were dismissed by the tribunal can still exhaust their right of appeal at the higher courts, but what is important at this point is for all Rivers sons and daughters to work with the governor to ensure that his tenure really projects Rivers State in a limelight.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on March 18, 2023 declared Governor Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the gubernatorial election, having polled 302,614 votes ahead of other contestants.
Displeased with the results of the election, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP), Allies Peoples Movement (APM) and Accord Party (AP), approached the election petitions tribunal seeking to nullify the election.
But the tribunal had in its judgement affirmed the election of Fubara as the validly elected governor of the state.
The Justice Cletus Emifonye-led three-member panel separately dismissed all the four petitions for lacking in merit, on grounds of jurisdiction and incompetence.
