…. orders INEC to open its defence on Wednesday

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

Three Justices that are sitting as the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on Monday, declined to recuse themselves from the case the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, filed to nullify the outcome of the gubernatorial poll that held in the state on November 11, 2023.

The panel, in a ruling it delivered after it resumed proceedings in the electoral dispute, said there was no merit in a fresh motion that asked them to hands off the case.

The APC and its candidate, who had earlier demanded the disbandment of the panel, had when the matter was called up, said they no longer have confidence in the ability of the tribunal to do justice in the petition they lodged to remove Governor Douye Diri from office.

The petitioners, through their team of lawyers led by Mr. Tunde Falola, said they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the panel would deny them victory.

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Both Sylva and his party alleged that members of the panel had in the course of the hearing, manifestly exhibited their bias against them.

Insisting that they would be denied the right to a fair hearing, the petitioners urged the Justice Adekunle Adeleye-led three-member panel to step aside and allow the President of the Court of Appeal to constitute another panel to hear their case.

However, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Charles Edosanwan, SAN, opposed the motion, describing it as frivolous and time wasting.

Likewise, governor Diri’s lawyer, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, that of the deputy governor, Mr. Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh, SAN, as well as counsel for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, urged the court to dismiss the application and proceed with the case.

They argued that the application was an attempt to not only blackmail the tribunal, but to also frustrate the other parties from presenting their defense against the petition.

Besides, the respondents noted that the petitioners participated in the pre-hearing session where time was allowed to all the parties for the presentation of their case.

The respondents argued that it was wrong for the petitioners to complain of fair hearing when they closed their case  before the expiration of the time allotted time them.

While dismissing the motion, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Adeleye held that the panel was in receipt of a letter from the Court of Appeal President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, mandating it to conclude the case.

He held that the motion by the petitioners was not capable of overriding the PCA’s letter to the tribunal, dated March 5.

Consequently, the panel adjourned the case till March 13 and 14 for INEC, being the 1st respondent, to open and close its defence.

It will be recalled that INEC had declared that governor Diri of the PDP garnered a total of 175, 196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva of the APC who polled 110, 108 votes.

However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Sylva, who served as governor of the state from 2008 to 2012, and the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, approached the tribunal, alleging that results of the election in three Local Government Areas, LGAs, were wrongly excluded by INEC.

He told the tribunal that whereas election held in Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe LGAs, however, the electoral body voided polling unit results that were forwarded for collation.

Sylva insisted that contrary to INEC’s position that election did not hold in the affected LGAs, its officials supervised the election and sent results from the various polling units to the collation center.

According to him, had it been that results from the three LGAs, which he described as his strongholds, were included, he would have won the gubernatorial contest.

Besides, the APC and its candidate alleged that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, were bypassed in some polling unit.

The petitioners had since closed their case, even as the tribunal ordered the respondents to open their defence.

Cited as respondents in the case marked: EPT/BY/GOV/04/2023, are: INEC, governor Diri, his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrujakpo as well as the PDP.

Vanguard Newspaper