Dual Citizenship: APC’s Rivers Guber Candidate, Tonye Cole, Disqualified

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has been sacked by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt over dual citizenship.

Cole was disqualified on Thursday for being a citizen of the United Kingdom and because his party, the APC, did not comply with the Electoral Act that brought him in as its candidate, the court said.

The suit was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State.

The PDP told the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission not to recognize 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.

In his judgment, Justice Emmanuel Obile ruled that Cole is not eligible to contest governorship position.

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Justice Obile ordered INEC to delist the name of Tonye Cole from the list of eligible candidates for the 2023 Governorship election.

Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, counsels to the PDP, Dike Udenna expressed happiness over the judgment which he said means that APC has no governorship candidate for the 2023 General election.

On his part, counsel to the APC, Collins Dike said the APC will challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal.

He said the constitution of Nigeria allows him to contest the Governorship election having been born in Nigeria.

The lawyer said Tonye Cole “voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the United Kingdom” which does not prevent him taking part in the election.