Court Sacks Rivers State APC Gubernatorial Candidate

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Thursday, November 24th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has been disqualified by a federal high court on Thursday over dual citizenship.

African Examiner writes that Tonye Cole is also said to be a citizen of the United Kingdom.

Also, the court ruled that the APC did not adhere to the Electoral Act that brought in Cole as the candidate of the party.

It could be recalled that the People’s Democratic Party in Rivers State had approached the court praying that the Independent National Electoral Commission does not recognize Tonye Cole as the governorship candidate of APC over alleged dual citizenship and that the delegate election that ushered him did not follow due process as it was monitored by INEC.

In his judgment, Justice Emmanuel Obile, agreed with the People’s Democratic Party that Tonye Cole is not eligible to contest the governorship position and he subsequently directed INEC to delist the name of Tonye Cole from the list of eligible candidates for the 2023 Governorship election.

Counsel to the APC, Collins Dike, stated that the APC will challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal.