Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko has condemned the judgment of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike.

“Our mindset is that tribunal judgment can go either way, but the Rivers own is particularly embarrassing. We all know the circumstances surrounding the Rivers State tribunal. You recall now that for unjustifiable course that tribunal was not allowed to sit in Port Harcourt, it was taken to Abuja, and somewhere along the line the chairman of the Tribunal got changed.

“Now we challenge the jurisdiction of the Tribunal and it has gotten to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will give judgement in the next few days. The Abuja Tribunal continues to sit. On Thursday, nine written addresses were adopted.

“The adoption of the written addresses was done at 1pm on Thursday. In the course of that trial, the litigants; both plaintiffs and defendants called more than 100 witnesses, documents that were presented as exhibits were more than 1,000.

“We are talking of more than 100 witnesses and 1,000 documents were admitted, we are talking of nine written addresses. None of the addresses were less than 40 pages.

“The adoption was on Thursday, around 1pm and Friday around 2pm, barely under 24 hours, notice had been issued that judgement was ready, that judgment was given on Saturday. This sequence and turn of event assault the sensibilities of lawyers that really believe in justice.”

“Remember the issue of jurisdiction which is fundamental is bound to give judgment this week. The question is why could the tribunal not have waited? Wait for the Supreme Court judgment which would naturally impact on their own outcome. Let the Supreme Court rules that they do not have jurisdiction ab initio.”

He also expressed confidence that the PDP would get favourable judgement at the appeal court.