The Labour Party (LP) has withdrawn its petition challenging Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s victory in the Rivers State March 18 election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Tonye Cole and his LP counterpart, Beatrice Itodo.
Recall that the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos State on November 28 affirmed the Governor’s victory in the election.
The LP governorship candidate confirmed the party’s decision to drop the case in a Saturday chat with Channels Television in her Ogbakiri country home of Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
“Because of the current happenings in River State, we feel that the interests of the state are far more paramount than every one of our expectations or feelings,” the LP chieftain said.
She also promised to support Fubara’s government for the progress of Rivers State.
“So, we are looking at it from the angle of the people. People have said, ‘Let us allow the government to move on, let there be good governance’ and there cannot be good governance without peace.
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“And so we looked at the whole scenario and we said ‘Enough is enough. Let us go back and ask our lawyers to withdraw the suit so that we can join hands with the present government to see how we can move the state forward.’”
Meanwhile, Fubara has been involved in a running battle with his godfather and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, over the structure of the State.
There were moves by members of the State House of Assembly to impeach the Governor in October.
However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intervention has failed to salvage the situation with the Assembly splitting into two factions supporting the Governor and Wike.
At least 27 members of the House loyal to the FCT minister dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressives Congress (APC) last Monday.
Also, nine out of the 17 members of the State Executive Council have resigned from the government since the crisis began.
