The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Rivers state, Architect Tonye Cole, has been asked not to dissipate too much energy in challenging the outcome of the election at the tribunal but should rather clear himself of the allegations of ant-party activities.
Throwing the challenge on Saturday in Port Harcourt, the leader of APC in Rivers state, Chief Tony Okocha alleged that Cole’s anti-party before and during the past elections led to the woeful performance of APC in the state.
“Cole has not challenged the burden of anti-party activities against him, during the Presidential Election on the 25/02/2023. It was in response to his anti-party that informed and infuriated the action of mainstream APC members who believed in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to sway Support to the PDP Governorship Candidate (Siminalaye Fubara), in reciprocation of the Governor Nyesom Wike and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Rivers state.
Okocha enumerated reasons that may propel a party to withdraw its petition from the election tribunal without necessarily giving consideration to the governorship candidate.
“It is rare to have a Party withdraw a Petition and allow the Petitioner to his fate. Many reasons abound. First, the Party may have found it a waste of time and resources knowing that the grounds of challenge, are puny. Secondly, the Party may have been irked too by the candidate’s infidelity to the Party,” he said.
Last Monday the state chapter of the party, said it had withdrawn its petition against the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
With the withdrawal of the APC, Tonye Cole remains the only petitioner against the INEC, PDP and its candidate, Fubara Siminalayi.
Cole is challenging the victory of Siminalayi in the March governorship poll in the state.
Worried by the withdrawal of the petition the spokesman of Tonye Cole Campaign Organization, Barr Sogbeye Eli, said the stories making the rounds of the withdrawal of the petition by Arc. Tonye Patrick Cole, 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress were false.
