?After spending 206 days against the 180 days as stipulated by the Supreme Court, the Rivers State governorship election petition tribunal on Thursday struck out the petition of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, Sir Celestine Ngozichim Omehia.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, had on September 22, 2011 ordered the tribunal to retry the petition brought before it by Omehia and his party, APGA, challenging the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare Amaechi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the April 26 governorship election in the state.
Delivering judgment, the tribunal chairman, Justice Abdullahi Liman said the petition was struck out on constitutional grounds, having exceeded the 180 days as directed by the Supreme Court on election matters.
?Liman stated that the tribunal would be committing a ‘gross judicial impendency’ if it goes ahead to hear the petition.
Reacting to the tribunal’s judgment, counsel to Amaechi, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi described the action of the three-man tribunal as the application of constitutional provisions to the latter, saying that there was no sentiments or emotions attached to the judgement.
Fagbemi said: “What we witnessed this morning is what I will call application of constitutional provisions to the last. There is no sentiments or emotions; either you are within the 180 days? or you are not and the constitution said if it is where a retrial has been ordered, the retrial order must be complied within the trial period of 180 days.
?“You will agree with me that this matter was filed in May 17, 2011, today, it is running into 206 days, and that is outside the intention of the relevant provision of the constitution. That was why the tribunal had no difficulty in striking out the petition.”