A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has disqualified Arch. Tonye Cole as Rivers State Governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC on grounds of dual citizenship.
Justice E. A Obile in a ruling on Thursday disqualified Cole for voluntarily acquiring citizenship of United Kingdom and declaration of allegiance to same country.
The court also said Cole was not being duly nominated by his political party as the party exhibited noncompliance with provisions of the electoral Act.
In his judgment, Justice Emmanuel Obile, ruled that the APC did not comply with the Electoral Act that brought in Cole as the candidate of the party.
The PDP had approached the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission not to recognize Tonye Cole as the governorship candidate of APC for alleged dual citizenship and that the delegate election that brought him did not follow due process having not been monitored by INEC.
He also agreed with the PDP that Tonye Cole is not eligible to contest governorship position.
He thereafter, directed INEC to delist the name of Tonye Cole from the list of eligible candidates for the 2023 Governorship election.
