Gov. Wike Wins At Supreme Court Over Certificate Scandal

The suit filed against the eligibility of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to run the in last governorship election has been struck out by the Supreme Court.

A five-man panel of the Supreme Court upheld two appeals by Wike, with which he challenged the leave granted to Elvis Chinda by the Court of Appeal.

Chinda had challenged the authenticity of the birth certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission and had prayed the court to disqualify Wike from contesting the last governorship election.

Before the governorship election in Rivers State, the Federal High Court had dismissed the suit, a ruling which was appealed at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

Chinda later discovered that his notice of appeal was wrongly addressed to the Federal High Court as against the Court of Appeal, and applied for leave to amend.

Governor Wike, objected to the amendment sought by Chinda on the grounds that he applied to amend, outside the time allowed by law for him to appeal the judgement of the Federal High Court.

The Court of Appeal disregarded Wike’s objection and granted the amendment sought by Chinda, a decision Wike appealed before the Supreme Court in two appeals marked: SC/606/2019 and SC/607/2019.

Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, in its judgement, read that the Court set aside the leave granted Chinda by the Court of Appeal to amend his notice of appeal.

The court held that the amendment granted outside the time allowed for the appellant to file his appeal violated Paragraph 14(4) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act.

The Supreme Court proceeded to allow both appeals filed by Wike and struck out the notice of appeal filed by Chinda before the Court of Appeal, which it said was defective.