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Supreme Court affirms Rivers governor, Fubara’s election

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by the APC to affirm the Rivers State Governor Fubara's election.


The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.

The court, in a unanimous judgement of its five-member panel, dismissed the appeal filed to challenge the victory of Mr Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 18 March 2023 election. The dismissed appeal was filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Tonye Cole.

The court’s panel led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun held that the appeal lacked merit.

In the lead judgement that was delivered by a member of the panel, Ibrahim Saulawa, the court held that it saw no reason to tamper with the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had both affirmed Governor Fubara’s election.


Dismissing the appeal on Thursday, the Supreme Court held that Mr Cole failed to prove his allegation that the election was not conducted in compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared that Mr Fubara polled a total of 302,614 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Mr Cole of the APC, who received a total of 95,274 votes.

Mr Cole and his party challenged the outcome of the election at the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. However, the APC later opted out of the case.

Mr Cole, who continued to prosecute the petition, alleged that the election was marred by irregularities, maintaining that the poll was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

He also alleged that Mr Fubara did not validly resign as the Accountant-General of Rivers State, as he ought to, as of the time of his nomination as the governorship candidate of the PDP for the 1 March 2023 poll.

He, therefore, urged the tribunal to nullify Mr Fubara’s election and declare him as the winner of the poll.

The tribunal in its judgement dismissed the petition.

Mr Cole went on to appeal against the decision at the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal, in its judgement delivered on 28 November 2023, affirmed the unanimous judgement of the tribunal that dismissed Cole’s case


But it faulted the reasoning of the tribunal that the petition was invalidated by the withdrawal of APC, which has the exclusive power of nominating and sponsoring a candidate for the election.

The Court of Appeal held that APC’s withdrawal from the petition did not bar Mr Cole from pursuing the case further. However, the court upheld the decision of the tribunal that the petition lacked merit.


The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal by affirming Mr Fubara’s election.

It dismissed Mr Cole’s appeal and another appeal filed to challenge the election by the Rivers State governorship candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), Innocent Kere.


The court dismissed the appeal following the application of the appellant’s lawyer to withdraw it.

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