An Appeal Court sitting in Lagos State on Tuesday threw out the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Patrick Tonye Cole, against Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tonye-Cole, who was present in the courtroom on Tuesday, wanted the court to direct INEC to declare him the winner of the March governorship election in Rivers.
In October, the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal dismissed Cole’s petition challenging the election of Fubara as the governor of the state.
The tribunal had thrown out the petition, saying that the APC that sponsored Cole had withdrawn the petition against Fubara’s victory.
Not satisfied with the Tribunal’s victory, Tonye-Cole approached the appellate court.
However, on Tuesday the Appeal Court affirmed the Tribunal ruling which earlier upheld Fubara’s victory in October.
Fubara polled 302,614 votes to win the election in Rivers State.
Tonye Cole had 95,274 votes to finish second while Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party scored 22,224 votes to come third.
Magnus Abe, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, had 46,981 votes while Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party (LP) got 22,224 votes
