The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has declared that the alleged ungodly political gang-up in Abuja will never compel him to abandon the mandate given to him freely by the people of the state.
Wike spoke on Saturday as he arrived the state capital from Abuja, where the state’s Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sacked him as governor of the state.
Wike said the judgment of the tribunal was tantamount to a lower court overruling a superior court, which is unknown to law.
Addressing thousands of his supporters who thronged the Port Harcourt International Airport on Saturdayevening to welcome him back from Abuja, Wike urged them to remain peaceful as the tribunal’s judgment was simply the verdict of man, which will give way to God’s verdict.
He said though by his training he is not expected to criticise a judge, the judgment by the the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal negated earlier judgments given by the same tribunal wherein it upheld his election in petitions filed by the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party, only to make a contradictory u-turn and nullify his election for the same reasons they upheld it in other petitions.
Wike, who was accompanied by the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, and other Rivers State leaders, said: “I have never seen a situation where a lower court overrules a higher court. The Court of Appeal has ruled on the issue of card reader which the tribunal based today’s judgment upon.”
The governor cited the fact that the Electoral Act does not recognise the card reader as stated by several tribunals and the Appeal Court.
He said: “Nobody will intimidate me to abandon the people of Rivers State. Justice will prevail at the end.
“I have a very good case and my lawyers are already compiling the appeal process.
“Therefore, Rivers people should remain peaceful as the good work already started will be completed by God’s grace.”
