The All Progressives Congress (APC) calls for the review of the Supreme Court judgment over the Bayelsa State, Gubernatorial election has been thrown out by the apex court on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court panel led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta upheld its earlier decision that sacked the APC Candidate, David Lyon as Governor-elect of Bayelsa State was less than 24-hours to his inauguration.
The lead judgment read by Justice Amina Augie also ordered the lawyers to the APC and its candidate, Lyon to pay the respondents a total of N60 million.
“The decision of this court is final. It is final forever and no force on earth can force this court to change its decision on Bayelsa.” Said Justice Amina Augie.
Afe Babalola and Wole Olanipekun, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria appeared for the APC and Lyon. They had asked the Supreme Court to review its judgment for violating natural justice.
According to Olanipekun, the judgment of the Federal High court which disqualified the deputy governorship candidate of the APC, Degi Eremionyo and upheld by the Supreme Court, did not make a consequential order on the governorship candidate and the swearing-in of PDP’s Douye Diri.
However, the Lawyers to PDP and its Candidate, Tayo Oyetibo, Yunus Ustaz Usman and Chris Uche submitted that the court cannot review itself after a full trial except on grounds of fraud or clerical errors.
The Intrigues
Shortly after the ruling by the Supreme Court judgment, the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole held a press conference where he declared that there will not be any government in Bayelsa State the following day as the PDP did not secure the widespread for criteria to be declared the winner.
There'll Be No Government in Bayelsa from Tomorrow, Says @OfficialAPCNg National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole#SupremeCourt #DavidLyon @OfficialPDPNig pic.twitter.com/E6UE3V8zTE
— RootsTv (@rootstvnigeria) February 13, 2020
“From tomorrow, there will be no government in Bayelsa state because based on the court judgment, the next winner does not even have one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the local governments; so which means based on the constitution, no one can be sworn-in as governor of Bayelsa state tomorrow. “Although, as a political party, we respect the rules of laws and judgment and that is why we have asked our lawyers to explore all legal devices in making sure Bayelsans gets their mandate.”
The comment by the APC National Chairman was said to have triggered some pockets of violence in Bayelsa State which led to the Police declaring dusk to dawn curfew in the State.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) insisted that Oshiomole should be held responsible saying it was his comment that incited the violence.
The PDP in a statement from its national spokesperson, Kola Ologbodiyan said:
“The violence and arson being perpetrated by the APC agents in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital, on Friday, was in furtherance of Oshiomhole’s inciting call that no governor would be sworn-in in Bayelsa state, contrary to the judgment of the Supreme Court”.
Ologbodiyan said Oshiomhole’s statement was a call to sedition and violent subversion of the 1999 Constitution, the statutory authority of the Supreme Court and the mandate of the people of Bayelsa state.
Recall that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, David Lyon, was declared the winner of the Bayelsa State 2019 governorship election.
The INEC returning officer announced that Mr Lyon polled 352,552 votes to defeat Douye Diri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 143, 172 votes. The total number of registered voters was announced as 922, 562 and the number of accredited voters was put at 517,883.
This has gone into oblivion with the controversial judgment of Nigeria’s Apex court.
