THE Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday granted an application seeking the substitution of the name of former Rivers State governor, Mr. Celestine Omehia, with that of the incumbent governor, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, in the pending appeal suit before it.
The governorship candidate of the Accord Party in the election of last year, Chief Bekinbo Soberekon, had through his counsel, Mr Femi Falana, sought the substitution to make the governor as part of the appeal.
Reading the ruling, a unanimous decision of the appeal court, Justice Galinje noted that the prayers in the application were appealing to the court’s discretionary powers, which he said, had to be judiciously exercised.
The court, which drew from the American legal system to reach its decision, noted that it was taken that when a person in public service was removed from his position by virtue of either death or resignation, the person that replaced him automatically substituted him in the eyes of the law.
It observed that the removal of Omehia as a result of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which stated that Governor Amaechi was the assumed winner in the eyes of the law automatically had substituted the former with the latter.
The court said the petition against Omehia at the tribunal was in order as he had already been declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).