* Wike 

At exactly 12:17 pm on Saturday, the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja declared that it was satisfied that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the April 2015 governorship election in the state, Dakuku Peterside, being the petitioners, have proven their case against the electoral victory of Nyesom Wike, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election.

 This set the tone for what was to come next.

 But before finally sacking Wike as governor of Rivers State at exactly 12.53 pm, the three-man tribunal headed by Justice Suleiman Ambursa, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election for the state within the next 90 days.

 The tribunal verdict was based on its decision that his victory followed non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

 In the judgment, read by Ambursa for about three hours, the tribunal held that the petitioners successfully proved their case that the election was conducted in total disregard to electoral guidelines.

 For example, Justice Ambursa held that the process of accreditation for the election was compromised with the use of incident forms rather than adherence to card reader.

 "While we agree with the second respondent’s (Wike) position that card reader was just introduced, but the usage of the card reader is to complement voter register. The election was in total disregard to guidelines, the issue of accreditation in election cannot be compromised.

 "Even, some of the witnesses of the respondents said they were not aware of the use of card reader for the election," Ambursa said stressing further that the tribunal hinged its decision to annul the election on contradictory position by the second and third respondents (Wike and PDP).

 The tribunal held that some of the figures given by Wike's witnesses contradicted the figures presented in the documents tendered by PDP while defending the case and that it was not impressed with the way the witnesses of the respondents presented themselves during cross examination by the petitioners.

 According to Ambursa, some of the witnesses of Wike and the PDP, who had written their evidence and tendered them before the tribunal, later claimed that they could not read when they were confronted with INEC results sheets during cross examination.

 "We are in agreement with the petitioners that the evidences presented by the respondents were unreliable. The respondents on their part were unable to defend the allegations in the petition.

 "The petitioners have proved their case as required by the law that the second respondent was not validly elected," the tribunal ruled.