Press Statement
Rivers Election Petitions Tribunal Judgment
The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed the Senatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Rivers South East in the forthcoming legislative Re-run Election, Mr. Magnus Abe, over his press statement congratulating one Hon. Andrew Miller on his “Appeal Court Victory” to represent Opobo/Nkoro Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
A statement by the State Chairman of PDP, Bro. Felix Obuah, said the hurried, ill-conceived and defective congratulatory message has exposed the desperation of Mr Abe, who could apparently not differentiate between the Elections Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
The statement signed by Obuah’s Special Adviser on Media/Publicity, Jerry Needam, said it is rather ridiculous that a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a supposed lawyer could not distinguish between a judgment emanating from the Court of Appeal and the one from the Election Petitions Tribunal.
“Magnus Abe should be educated that the Tribunal had dismissed the petition brought by Hon. Adonye Diri and refused to entertain it. But Diri had gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision, and the Appellate court had ordered that the petition be rather looked into by the Election Petitions Tribunal. That was the position before last Tuesday’s ruling by the Election Petitions Tribunal which gave judgment to Miller of the APC and not the Appeal Court as mischievously stated by desperate Mr. Abe”, Obuah explained.
Bro. Obuah stated that the action of Mr Magnus Abe was deliberate and intended to deceive the Rivers people, particularly the electorate in Opobo/Nkoro who voted massively for Hon. Adonye Diri of the PDP but had their mandate stolen through the evil conspiracy of INEC, APC as well as the miscarriage of justice by the Election Petitions Tribunal.
The PDP further described Senator Abe’s statement as a charade and childish, as he labored to concoct tissues of lies aimed at giving credibility to the stolen mandate of the Opobo/Nkoro people, explaining that the petition has not actually been decided by the Appeal Court.
Bro. Obuah revealed that both the PDP and Hon. Adonye Diri have promptly headed to the Court of Appeal to challenge the erroneous judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal delivered on Tuesday, October 4, 2016, hoping that at the end of the day, justice would prevail and the mandate given to Hon. Adonye Diri by the people of that constituency would be restored.
The PDP admonished Mr. Magnus Abe to be abreast of issues before going public to deceive unsuspecting Rivers people and Nigerians thereby exposing his ignorance and embarrassing himself and his party, the APC.
Signed:
Jerry Needam
Special Adviser, on Media to
State PDP Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah
