The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Tonye Cole, has been disqualified by a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Court cited Cole’s voluntary dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and pledging allegiance to same.
Other ground cited by Justice Emmanuel Obile include not being duly nominated by the APC as well as not following due process as enshrined in the new electoral act.
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 People’s Democratic Party 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.
