The Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja has thrown out four of the five petitions filed against the election of Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) .
It is, however, a temporary victory as that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside has survived.
One of the four petitions dismissed by the tribunal-marked EPT/RV/GOV/05/2015 was voluntarily withdrawn by the petitioner, Kemka Elenwo, who was the candidate of KOWA Party  in the election, the three others were dismissed on  grounds of technicality following the application by Wike and the PDP. The Justice Mu’azu Pindiga-led tribunal on Wednesday dismissed the fourth petition marked EPT/RV/GOV/03/2015 which was filed by Minaibim Harry of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on the grounds that the petition was incompetent.
The tribunal held that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the petition since the two grounds on which it was anchored were defective, because they were not in strict compliance with the provisions of Section 138(1) (a) to (d) of the Electoral Act.
The said provision of the Electoral Act prescribes the grounds on which an election petition can be filed.
Other petitions that were dismissed by the tribunal included the one filed by the Labour Party(LP) (EPT/RV/GOV/01/2015) and another by the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and its candidate, Charles Harry, (EPT/RV/GOV/02/2015).
In its ruling on July 31, Justice Pindiga, who dismissed the petition by the LP  which fielded Tonye Princewill in the April 11 election, held that the party did not have a candidate for the election having not complied with the requirement under Section 85(1) of the Electoral Act (EA) 2010.
It noted that the notice given by the petitioner to INEC of its intention to conduct a primary election from which the petitioner’s candidate purportedly emerged “is less than the mandatory 21 days required by Section 85(1) of the Electoral Act.
“By implication, the effect of this non-compliance, is that no valid primary election was conducted and held by the petitioner and its purported candidate.”
The tribunal also found that the petitioner did not comply with the required procedure for applying for the issuance of pre-hearing notice, a default which rendered the petition inconsequential.