In a video clip personally recorded by the APC Guber candidate Tonye Cole in the last Rivers governorship election shows him vowing to fight to the touch line.
TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports Cole in a video clip speaking pidgin English declaring that he has not withdrawn from the Election Petition Tribunal as he would fight till he has exhausted all legal avenues.
A report in an online medium had published that Cole and others had withdrawn their petitions from the Tribunal but he debunked it as depicted in the video clip.
In the said report it was claimed that “those who have filed a petition at the tribunal are: Beatrice Itubo (Labour Party), Tekena Iyagba (Boot Party), Innocent Ekwu (APM), Etete Sobere (PRP), Gabriel Gborogbosi (Action Alliance), Magnus Abe (SDP), Pastor Tonye Cole (APC) and Dumo Lulu Briggs (Accord Party).
However, at the tribunal on Monday, the Rivers state election petition tribunal struck out the petition filed by the All Progressive Congress, APC, following the withdrawal by its counsel.
Solomon Umoh, Counsel to the APC told the tribunal that he would be taking over as counsel for the party following a motion for change of counsel before the tribunal.
He also informed the court that his clients would like their names to be struck out from the petition as applicants.
Jibrin Okutepa who was the former counsel for Tonye Cole and the APC, told the tribunal that he was not briefed on the new development by the party.
The three-man panel, led by Justice Cletus Emifoniye, however granted the application for change of counsel and also granted the motion as prayed by striking out the name of APC as a petitioner.
According to TVC, the APC’s withdrawal was brought pursuant to order 9 rule 15 of the federal high court civil procedure rules 2019.
One of the grounds for the application amongst others is that “There is the need to seek the leave of this Honourable Tribunal to strike out the name of the 2nd Petitioner/Applicant, as the Applicant has no intention to participate in this petition.”
No date has been fixed for the commencement of the pre-hearing of applications before the tribunal.
Watch Pastor Tonye Cole’s video below: