The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Rivers State Tonye Cole may have caused a rift between himself and his godfather Rotimi Amaechi following his decision to withdraw the petition he filed to nullify the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Sim Fubara, as the winner of the March 18 governorship election
APC is one of the nine parties that filed a petition at the tribunal challenging the outcome of the March 18 polls but 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.”
This development came after Cole was said to be ready to work with the APC at the centre despite the feud between his godfather Amechi and the President-elect Bola Tinubu.
