Bayelsa Election: Supreme Court To Hear APC’s Request On Wednesday

The Supreme Court has fixed Wednesday, February 26 to hear the application filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The ruling party is seeking among others, a review of the February 13 judgement of the apex court which disqualified its candidate in the November 16, 2019, governorship election in Bayelsa State, David Lyon.

In the application filed on Thursday last week by its team of lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Niger (SAN), Wole Olanipekun, the APC asked the Supreme Court to set aside some portions of its judgment.

This include where the court “wrongly” held that the Federal High Court disqualified its governorship candidate along with its deputy governorship candidate, and where it held that the joint ticket of its candidates was vitiated by the disqualification of the deputy governorship candidate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, and that both candidates were deemed not to be candidates in the election.

The party also urged the Supreme Court to set aside the portion of its judgment where it ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare as winner of the governorship election, candidates with the highest number of lawful votes.

It disagreed with the portion where the court ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to its governorship candidate and issue a fresh one to the candidate who had the highest number of lawful votes.

The APC argued that it was wrong for the Supreme Court to have voided its candidates’ participation in the election, because the judgment by the Federal High Court which disqualified its deputy governorship candidate, was stayed as at when the election was conducted.

It also requested that the Supreme Court set aside what it described as the “wrong” interpretation given to its judgment of February 13, 2020, and the subsequent execution by INEC.

The party contended, among others, that the Supreme Court in its judgment misinterpreted the November 12, 2019, judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja which the apex court affirmed.

It insisted that the Supreme Court acted without jurisdiction and denied it fair hearing when it proceeded to disqualify its governorship candidate, even though the Federal High Court in the judgment by Justice Inyang Ekwo, which the apex court affirmed, refused the plaintiffs’ prayer to disqualify Mr Lyon.