₦airaland Forum

fergie001:
Abeg, when will LM & others appeal the Tribunal judgements against them?

fergie001:
Abeg, when is LM & others appealing the judgements against them jareh?

asanwafo:
U should be happy that I insulted u

garfield1:
I didn't invite you here so respect yourself.

garfield1:
By David Tobi Oyesowo Esq

Many activities prelude the conduct of elections. These activities are varied in dimensions as they range from declaration of interest by eligible candidates under a preferred political party, to the struggles that permeate the primary elections, and finally to the great battle of the titans that will eventually crown the winning candidate, which is the main election.


These activities are not without their dramas and intricacies. One of the intricacies is the avoidable occurrence that shook the whole country with the Supreme Court Judgment in the Bayelsa Election, on the eve of the swearing in of Mr. Lyon. This judgment no doubt shook the country with wild applause and condemnation from different opinion givers.



The judgment, not only shook the country, it redefined the political landscape in the oil rich state, as it ushered in “a new order” other than what the electorate bargained for.

Be that as it is may, that is gone.

However on 17th August, 2020, the tribunal sitting in Abuja handed down her judgment, and nullified the election of Mr. Diri and ordered a fresh election to be conducted within 90 days. The tribunal predicated her judgment on the ground that, the ANDP Logo was omitted on the ballot in the February Election.

The position of the law is clear concerning the grounds for an election to be nullified as contained in Section 138 of the Electoral Act. One of the salient grounds is that the petitioner must have been unlawfully excluded from the election. A ground which the ANDP prayed for and was upheld by the Honorable Court (tribunal). See Section 285(2) of the 1999 CFRN As Amended.

Interestingly, this judgment has revived the hope of party faithfuls on the likely comeback of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress who was the initial winner before tragedy struck.

It is imperative to state that the judgment handed down yesterday by the tribunal is subject to an appeal up to the Supreme Court by the affected parties and without prejudice to the right of the affected party, I wish them well.

However, assuming without conceding that the Supreme Court upholds the judgment of the tribunal and holds that “fresh” election should be conducted within 90 days, the question is, “Does APC stand a chance?”

This has made me to look for the meaning of the word “FRESH” in the Law Dictionary which means “a course just starting”.

It is imperative to also bear in mind that according to the INEC Guidelines and Electoral Act particularly section 33, political parties can only make replacement of their candidates within a period of 30days which has since lapsed. This above position will be the arguments and opinion of some persons as regards the judgment and by this position, the APC has been shut out.

However, the jurisprudence of law is to enable lawyers to think outside the box and in this case, I will appraise the meaning of the word “fresh”.

In the legal parlance, it means DE NOVO, which means starting fresh, or over again. In BABATUNDE .V. PAN ATLANTIC SHIPPING AND TRANSPORT AGENCIES LTD & ORS (2007) LPELR – 698-SC, the Supreme Court holds “De Novo” as ‘New’, “a fresh beginning” “a start”.

Per Muhammed JSC said the consequence of a De Novo is as if nothing had “existed”.

Similarly in OBINWENBI .V. CBN (2011) LPELR -2185 (SC) PER RHODES VIVOUR JSC held that fresh is to start DE NOVO, or to start all over again.

In other words, where fresh election is ordered as in this instance, it is assumed that the earlier elections and proceedings will be jettisoned and a new course of event will be allowed to flow. If this position is upheld, with the conduct of fresh election, it will open the gate for APC and its candidates to participate in the election.

It is necessary to state as well that court orders must be expressed to avoid imputations from litigants, where the orders contained in the judgment do not expressly state that the APC and its candidate should be exempted, there is nothing stopping INEC from allowing APC to participate in the elections, more so that the Supreme Court Judgment that sacked Mr. David Lyon was based on a pre-election matter.



Mynd44
Lalasticlala
Kahal
Bayelsaowei
Engels
Ejimatic
Duwdu
Martineverest
Afroknight

asanwafo:
U always tag any judgment that is not in ur favour "horrible". What do u know in law? Just cos politicians are shouting, that's why u are blabbing in same direction with them. El Rufai's invitation was withdrawn by a body that is supposed to be promoter of justice on the ground of hearsay,u supported it. If it were any governor from PDP u would have tagged it horrible. Kyari was the problem of Nigeria, now he is no more, Nigeria remains the same ur state inclusive. Uzodimma was a supreme court governor while Diri and Wike (first term),that of Zamfara etc were not. Grow up "man"

garfield1:
A whole pdp being caught off guard by an unknown andp? Even apc won't be that careless.a whole pdpfied state being won by apc overwhelmingly.even if the reconduct new elections today with both diri and Dickson as governors,Lyon will still thrash them.I know you hate apc but pdp no reach

garfield1:
Pdp is the one failing.if apc is behind them,then diri is a goner

garfield1:
It is not compulsory.notification is only formality.they chose to act when inec officially excluded them and under section 138 d of the electoral act,it is post election matter

Royalfurnitures:
Of course we that APC is using a few guys in that party to take power through the back yard


Your home is incomplete without good quality furniture thats why we are here for you

garfield1:
Thank you for this.a big gbam to you.he knows diri will certainly lose hence he is hanging on to issues that are totally irrelevant to the case.inec at no point ever questioned the primaries of andp,their issue was just the underage candidacy which they have no power to act on except by a court order.

Even a child knows that pdp has bribed the state chapter of andp but unfortunately electoral issues are handled by the national chapter not state chapter and the national chairman is championing the case.
Even if the party never conducted primaries,it is too late to bring that up as it is statute barred.the issues before the court are?
1) does inec have the power to exclude any Party that breaches constitutional provisions?
2) is the case statute barred? Did andp file within 21 days or not?
3) is the matter a pre election matter or not

garfield1:
Inec is at fault.they have no powers to disqualify or exclude any candidate except by a court order.only the judiciary has that power

kahal29:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJe1moe72U&t=1860s

fergie001:
You don't even know what's happening?

Peter Esinkuna filed an affidavit before the Court that he was born February 1985...but his waec certificate read October 1985.
Inowei now was below 35 years..I just don't understand.

The National Chairman filed a case agreeing it was a pre-election matter and their candidate was Esinkuna....his counsel said its Inowei Janet...the Chairman came back again and said it was Peter (or so).

Again, he didn't attach results of the election as evidence...he attached the SC judgement....that is funny you know.

My bro....leave this case and go to bed Biko...this one Don go.

fergie001:
I am not discussing this case because I have dumped it where I dumped Alaibe's own....na Edo legal fireworks we dey wait jareh.

fergie001:
You don't even know what's happening?

Peter Esinkuna filed an affidavit before the Court that he was born February 1985...but his waec certificate read October 1985.
Inowei now was below 35 years..I just don't understand.

My bro....leave this case and go to bed Biko...this one Don go.

fergie001:
At a point during cross-examination, Justice Sirajo had to ask the National Chairman if he was really a legal practitioner and had to caution their counsel, Ogunwumiju.

Well, this one have passed jareh....

fergie001:
I have read both judgements and still wondering why Justices Owodunni & Musa had considered this case.
Well, it is to shapen our jurisprudence.....but the Appeal will toss it out.

fergie001:
I knew it....
During cross-examination....the National Chairman of the Party was asked to produce the sheet for the Party's Primaries....he didn't have it.

Head-or-tail, its a no-case

IamWonderful:
What are you saying? the ANDP party presented a candidate for the governorship election and they were excluded by the too know INEC, that want to do the work of the court of law for them, this current development only signifies that the some of the top party members have been bought by the crook governor

Austino50:
Its late now because the case has already been decided and you can not add or subtract at this level of appeal, even to the level of supreme court. Any bribe given to you is your own free share of the state resources it will not add any value to their so called appeal

Babzrockman:
Either alert or brown envelope one must have been served... Useless people everywhere..
I know the judgement will not have serious effects

Yenagoa- The Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) in Bayelsa State, on Thursday, washed its hand off the ongoing case on the alleged unlawful exclusion of the party’s candidate from the November 16, 2019 governorship election.

Pastor Sapere-Obi Endukakpo, the state secretary of the ANDP, said during a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre in Yenagoa on Thursday that the party was never a party to the petition filed before the tribunal.

Endukakpo, who was flanked by the state Publicity Secretary, Charles Krotezi, and the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Fortune Oyadongha, said the ANDP had unanimously adopted Diri during the run-up to the poll.

He said the ANDP could not, therefore, have dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the tribunal to complain about the alleged unlawful exclusion of the party’s candidate from the election.

Endukakpo said, “As at the time of the said elections, the party was still in its formative stage and yet to create structures necessary to run a successful campaign.

“Consequently, the party at the state level, in consultation with the National Executive, in its wisdom, opted to endorse the candidate whose vision and manifesto best mirrored the aspirations of the ANDP for a greater Bayelsa State.

“In that consideration, we met and agreed to support the candidature of His Excellency, Senator Douye Diri, of the Peoples Democratic Party.”

He recalled that the ANDP officially communicated its intentions to Diri in a letter dated November 4, 2019 and also published same in some national dailies, stressing that the judgment of the election petition tribunal sacking the governor “came to us as a rude shock.”


Endukakpo further said,”For clarity and emphasis, the ANDP did not conduct primaries, neither did we agree on a consensus candidate simply because the elections came too soon for the party to put structures required in place.

“Therefore, the party, having previously adopted Senator Diri, could not have gone to the tribunal to complain of unlawful exclusion.”

He also stated that the purported candidate of the ANDP is unknown to the party “as he is not a card-carrying member”, challenging him to produce his membership card “if he maintains this charade.