Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja has dismissed four petitions against Governor Siminalayi Fubara's election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Fubara the winner of the gubernatorial election, polling 302,614 votes. Four other candidates and their political parties challenged Fubara's victory, seeking nullification. The three-man panel dismissed all four petitions and affirmed Fubara's election. The tribunal dismissed petitions by Tonye-Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Beatrice Itubo, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and his Accord Party (AP), and governorship candidate Innocent Ekwu for lack of merit, jurisdictional grounds, and incompetence. The tribunal also awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioner and in favour of the respondents. The tribunal threw out two issues raised by the petitioner for being incompetent and lacking in merit. Tonye-Cole of the APC had asked the tribunal to sack Fubara from office, but the tribunal held that nomination of a candidate is an internal affairs of a political party. The tribunal noted that the APC had withdrawn its petition against Fubara, leaving only Cole to challenge the outcome of the election.