The Federal High Court, Abuja has thrown out the suit seeking to disqualify Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike from contesting the March 9 gubernatorial election.
The suit was filed by one Elvis Chinda, a legal practitioner. Chinda, in the suit, asked the court to disqualify Wike from contesting the election on the grounds that the presented a forged birth certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Justice Ekwo in his judgment held that the matter being a pre-election issue was status barred because it was not commenced within the 14 days stipulated by law.
He said Wike did not have immunity from being sued on an election related matter as argued by his counsel, Ferdinand Orbih, SAN.
Ekwo held that the suit was purely a pre- election matter as the reliefs sought by Chinda were to disqualify Wike from contesting an election.
He held that the plaintiff’s position that the cause of action arose on Nov.13 2018 when he obtained a Certified True Copy of the INEC document containing the forged birth certificate, was strange to him saying the cause of action arose when the plaintiff had reasonable grounds to believe that Wike submitted a forged birth certificate to INEC.
“As at March 7, 2018 when he applied to INEC for the document he had reasonable grounds to believe that the document was forged.”
The judge held that the suit was an abuse of court process noting that an appeal on a similar subject matter was pending before the Court of Appeal where the plaintiff’s counsel was the plaintiff in the case brought before him.
He condemned such practice describing it as a misconduct on the part of the lawyer.
Justice Ekwo said that the plaintiff had failed to prove the allegation that Wike forged his birth certificate beyond reasonable doubt stressing that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff and not with defendants.
In the originating summons filed by his lawyer, Achinike William-Wobodo, Chinda had asked the court to determine whether: “The Certificate of Birth (Statutory Declaration of Age) attached to Wike’s Form C.F.001 presented to INEC, purportedly deposed to on Oct.3, 1986 by one Collins Wike from Obio / Okpor Local Government Area of Rivers was forged.”
He had argued that as at 1986 Obio / Okpor Local Government Area was not in existence because the local government in question was created in 1989 by Decree No. 12 of 1989, two years after the alleged forgery was committed.
He further told the court that Wike had maintained consistency of the forged document by presenting same to INEC since 1989.
The plaintiff’s counsel, William- Wobodo, speaking to newsmen outside the court said his client would appeal the judgment, while Orbih, defendants’s counsel expressed satisfaction with the judgment saying it had vindicated their position.