Court Disqualifies Rivers APC Guber Candidate

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has been disqualified by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.

The court which sat on Thursday sighted Cole’s voluntary dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and pledging allegiance to same and for not being duly nominated by the APC as well as not following due process as enshrined in the new electoral act.

Justice Emmanuel Obile who presided over the proceeding ruled that the APC did not comply with the Electoral Act that brought in Cole as the candidate of the party.

The PDP had approached the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission not to recognize Tonye Cole as the governorship candidate of APC.

They alleged that he had dual citizenship and that the delegate election that brought him did not follow due process having not been monitored by INEC.

He also agreed with the People’s Democratic Party that Tonye Cole is not eligible to contest the governorship position.

He thereafter directed INEC to delist the name of Tonye Cole from the list of eligible candidates for the 2023 Governorship election.