Is it Uhuru in Court for Bayelsa APC? – TheNigerialawyer

Save for some last minute moves, Bayelsa State
chapter of the APC would have ended up another guinea pig of
history, writes Emmanuel Addeh

In May this year, the Supreme Court had declared null and void,
the elections of all the candidates of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in Zamfara State in the 2019 general election and
held that the Appeal Court in Sokoto was right, when it agreed with
the party that the APC did not conduct primaries in the state.

In a unanimous pronouncement by a five-man panel led by the then
Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, the apex
court declared the party with the highest number of votes cast at
the election aside the appellants (APC and co) was the winner of
the election. And the lot fell on the Peoples Democratic party
(PDP).
It was a devastating blow to the party, which eventually accepted
its fate after going around in circles in a futile attempt to
upturn the decision of the courts.

Before then, precisely in February this year, a five-man panel
headed by Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, struck out the appeal filed by a
faction of the APC loyal to Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of
Transportation, challenging the judgment of a high court in Rivers,
which had barred the party from conducting primaries to nominate
candidates to represent it in the elections.

Senator Magnus Abe had asked the court to annul the congresses
and primaries, which the rival faction conducted. Relying on the
judgment, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
failed to enlist candidates of the party for the governorship,
national and state assembly elections.

In the aftermath of the court decisions, the party returned
empty-handed, without, as it were, any candidate for the elections.
Interestingly, just a few months apart, thunder is about to strike
twice in the same place, nay in the same party. If care is not
taken or more succinctly, if the Appeal and the Supreme Courts
decide to uphold the ruling of a high court in Bayelsa and by
extension the Abuja High Court, which is handling the case
concerning the APC running mate in Bayelsa, Degi Eremienyo (though
the facts are different in both cases).

Mr. David Lyon’s emergence as the candidate of the APC in the
Bayelsa governorship primaries in Bayelsa State was both dramatic
and intriguing, more like a movie, straight from the box office. A
little-known oil contractor, Lyon emerged after the Governor
Mai-Mala Buni-led electoral committee announced the results in
Yenagoa, with the governor, who doubled as the chairman of the APC
electoral committee, visibly absent from the hurriedly put together
event at Aridolf, a hotel in Yenagoa, where the results were
announced even before many journalists got to the venue.

Before Lyon’s emergence, the most preferred aspirant, who was
tipped to win the internal poll after it was clear that Chief
Timipre Sylva would not be taking part in the poll which took place
on September 4, was Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who had declined to
be re-nominated minister, having resigned to contest the
primaries.

It became even clearer that Lokpobiri stood a very good stead to
trounce every other aspirant, who was interested in the primaries,
since Sylva was already out of the way, having just been appointed
the Minister of State for Petroleum.
But that initial joy that Sylva, his biggest obstacle to becoming
the party’s standard-bearer was now out of the way, was
short-lived.

In a twist, Sylva, leader of the APC in Bayelsa, who had become
a powerful minister and felt slighted by the entrance of Lokpobiri
into the race without his express consent, endorsed Lyon, who hails
from Southern Ijaw, the second largest population of voters in the
state. Lyon officially joined the race a day before the expiration
of purchase of nomination forms after Sylva stepped down, having
been sworn in as minister overseeing the petroleum ministry.

But the first sign of trouble was when Sylva and Lokpobiri
disagreed on the mode of primaries to adopt, with Lokpobiri urging
the party to conduct indirect primaries for the election, while
Sylva opted for the direct method.

Lokpobiri opined that indirect primaries would ensure
transparency and credibility in the process of electing the
standard bearer in the state, but the petroleum minister knew that
Lokpobiri stood a higher chance of emerging if the indirect method
was adopted.
After several postponements, the party was still unsure of what
method to adopt even on the day of the election, but the primary
mode was used after a court in Yenagoa declined jurisdiction in the
case in the morning of September 4, the day fixed for the
election.

But like a movie, Sylva’s preferred candidate ‘scored’ 42,138
votes to defeat his distant rival, Mrs Diseye Nsirim, who scored
1,533 votes, while Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, erstwhile Minister
of State Agriculture and Rural Development, surprisingly scored 571
votes in a state that boasts hundreds of thousands of party
loyalists. Preye Aganaba also scored 354 votes; Mr Amgbare polled
633 votes while Prof. Maureen Etebu polled 564 votes.

Senator Emmanuel Ocheja, Chief Collation Officer, who announced
the result in Yenagoa, while the chairman was visibly missing, said
the mode adopted was direct primary as agreed by Bayelsa
stakeholders and confirmed by the national working committee.
Sylva described the election as peaceful, Lokpobiri kicked against
it and headed for the courts, asking the judge to declare him the
rightful winner of the election.

Rejecting the outcome, Lokpobiri said that there was no way he
would be defeated in any election in Bayelsa by Lyon.
He wondered why a primary was said to have started in a hotel in
Yenagoa and ended in the hotel sidelining the secretariat of the
party in the state, adding that party members gathered at the
secretariat in Yenagoa and waited in vain for the arrival of the
committee saddled with the conduct of the primaries.

He also queried the choice of someone else declaring the results
other than the Returning Officer and Yobe State governor that
chaired the committee. He expressed optimism that the national
leadership of the party would look into the development in Bayelsa
and ensure a credible process that would throw up a popular
candidate for the APC.
The former minister said there were hundreds of thousands of APC
members in the state and that it was not possible for a direct
primary to produce less than 45,000 voters as purportedly announced
in Bayelsa.

But for over two months that the case pended in court, there was
no indication that the APC leadership found it necessary to make
peace and prevail on Lokpobiri to withdraw the case until last
week, when the suit had already advanced.

By the time the national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole,
made the very important visit, it was already too late. Lokpobiri
told Oshiomhole that he remained in the APC, but said he would
allow the judge decide the case without withdrawing it at that
point.

On Thursday, the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, finally
seemed to have nailed the coffin, when it declared invalid the
announcement of Lyon and his running mate, Eremienyo as winners of
the primary election for yesterday’s governorship election in
Bayelsa.

Justice Jane Inyang affirmed that the APC breached the rules,
when another person, other than the statutorily recognised
authority, the chairman of the party’s National Electoral
Committee, failed to announce the results of the poll.
But in a move Lokpobiri’s counsel described as strange, the judge
declined to declare him the valid candidate, as requested in his
prayers before the court.

Inyang in the judgment in the suit challenging the governorship
primaries of APC noted that the exercise was conducted arbitrarily
outside the rules of the party. She ruled that since the process
was conducted in violation of the party’s constitution and
guidelines for the conduct of governorship primaries, none of the
aspirants should be fielded as the party’s candidate.
Inyang, therefore, gave an order restraining the Independent
Electoral Commission (INEC) from fielding Lyon as the party’s
candidate in the election slated for Saturday.

She maintained that by the APC guidelines for the conduct of the
2019 governorship primaries, the results were expected to be
declared by the returning officer for the primaries, Governor Mai
mala Buni of Yobe and not Senator Ocheja, Secretary of the election
Committee, like the party did.

According to her, the APC also violated its own rules in the
composition of the election panel when it constituted an 11-member
committee rather than seven, according to the rules.
“It has been established by judicial authorities and several
judgments that political parties are bound by their own rules. The
committee that conducted the primary threw caution to the winds and
it is my ruling that the primaries stands nullified.

“The results announced by Senator Emmanuel Ochega is not valid
as he is not the returning officer for the election, and I make an
order restraining INEC from recognising any of the aspirants that
participated in the said primaries” she said.
The presiding judge also directed INEC not to include the names of
Senator Lokpobiri (plaintiff) and Chief Lyon (first defendant) on
the ballot paper. The legal unit of INEC is to be served quickly,”
the judge said.

Lyon’s Legal Team Kicks
Lead Counsel to the APC and Lyon, Sydney Ibanichuka, in an
interview said the judgment was a travesty of justice. He said the
court granted a request that was not part of the suit before
it.
“What has happened is a travesty of justice. It has been said
before that the court is not Father Christmas. The court cannot
dish out orders not asked for.
“The request was to be declared winner and not to nullify the
entire process. What the court just did was to cancel the whole
process and there were documents attached, which showed that there
was nothing wrong with the process.
“It was in adherence to party guidelines. The court going ahead to
give what was not prayed for is travesty of justice. Right away, we
are appealing and taking the necessary thing known to law. This
court is not the final arbiter in this case,” he said.

APC Rejects Court Ruling
The APC immediately kicked against Thursday’s judgment by Justice
Inyang. The party urged the people of the state not to lose sleep
over the ruling. Lyon’s Campaign Director, prof. Seiyefa Brisibe in
a press briefing in Yenagoa, said the judgment was suspicious.
“We reject this judgment and by November 16, APC will take over
this state. This judgment is baffling, but we want to say, going
forward that the people of Bayelsa should not give any thought or
moment of sleeplessness to this judgment.
“This is a judgment that’s given by the lower court and the
processes are clear. You file for stay of execution, which our
lawyers have done. They have appealed for a stay of execution.
“Another reason why we shouldn’t be perturbed. The court is not a
Father Christmas. The issue in this case is that one of the
aspirants requested that the election was conducted freely and
fairly, but that he was the winner, which should be declared.”

Sylva’s Un-ministerial Outburst
As expected, the ruling obviously got the party flustered. Sylva,
insisted that the party was still in the governorship race while in
a fit of anger described the judge in not so flattering terms.

In a media briefing in Yenagoa, Sylva said he was aware of a
plot to use the court to stop the APC, because the PDP was
jittery.
“The PDP wants to use the courts to stop the APC. If there’s an
election today, the APC will carry the day. The PDP is embarking on
a strange way to retain power.

“A few days ago, a very frivolous matter concerning spelling of
name was brought before the court. They did not allege that someone
else has the name. Unfortunately, the judge in Abuja held that
there was an infringement.
“Today, there was something unknown to law that happened in
Bayelsa. Heineken said he won; Lyon went to court to say we are the
rightful winners.

“None of the parties said there was no election. Lokpobiri said
there were primaries, same for Lyon. Where did the judge get her
judgment? “Fortunately, we have good news. The appeal court has
just granted a stay of execution. That means we are fully still in
the race and we will win. We don’t want to join issues with them,”
he said.

PDP’s Momentary Jubilation
Quite expectedly, there was jubilation in the PDP in Bayelsa as the
governorship candidate in the election, Senator Douye Diri, told
journalists that the APC did not have a candidate and asked the
entire people of the state not to waste their votes on the APC.

Addressing the press in Yenagoa, an elated Diri noted that since
the names on the ballot could not be altered, the voters in the
state should ignore the APC spot on the ballot.

“Trusting God, we filed a case against the Deputy Governor of
the APC, who has been disqualified by the court and that means that
as a joint ticket, APC has no candidate.

“Not only that, just today, this was a case between APC and APC.
Arising from the primaries, the matter has been on and it is now
nullified to cement the earlier court ruling.
“The INEC has said they could not undo the ballot that has been
printed, but that any vote for the APC is invalid and wasted and
that is the position.

“As we go to the polls on Saturday (yesterday), the APC has no
candidate. Therefore, we want to use this opportunity that the PDP,
which is the party that has a credible platform, even when they are
killed is the only party in Bayelsa” he said.

Savouring Temporary Reprieve
For now, the Courts of Appeal in Abuja and Port Harcourt had
ordered INEC to “maintain the status quo ante bellium, which
existed before 18 September 2019”. How long the respite will last
remains to be seen. Hearing in the case will continue after the
election.

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