Bayelsa Guber: Election Petition adjourns indefinitely as Sylva, APC allege bias

The former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva and the All Progressives Congress (APC), have passed a vote of no confidence on the Panel of the Election Tribunal sitting on a petition filed against the election of Governor Duoye Diri. Consequently, the tribunal adjourned indefinitely pending the decision of the Court of Appeal President, Mrs Monica Dongban-mensem, on a petition against the three-member panel led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye. At the resumption of the petition, Monday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), were called up to open its defence, however, counsel to the petitioners, Mr R. O. Balogun, SAN, informed the tribunal of a petition and letter written to the President of the Court of Appeal and the Secretary of the tribunal, complaining of bias and lack of fair hearing. The former governor and his party, in the petition specifically asked the president to disband the panel and constitute a new one, adding that the petitioners still have up till May 28, for the expiration of their petition. They moved to adjourned further proceedings, pending the decision of the Court of Appeal President. Although, INEC, Diri, and his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrujakpo, had initially opposed the request for adjournment, but made a u-turn, after the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), pointed out that it is the petitioners case and they can spend the whole year, arguing it. In their petition, they posited that record of proceedings obtained so far, showed that observations comments made by the tribunal suggested that they have already made up their minds to favour the respondents. They maintained that the record showed that the tribunal on its own made observation in writing to the extent that the pattern of writing witness statement on oath by the witnesses called by the petitioners are the same. The petitioners also said to have observed in the record of proceedings that the signatures of the witnesses are the same without calling experts, to establish so. While pointing out that the panel have already concluded that the polling units results tendered by the petitioners are fake, they submitted that it was wrong for the tribunal to make the observation on the record of proceedings. They said based on the above they no longer have faith and confidence in the panel and urged the panel to suspend further trial until their petition is resolved by the president of the Court of Appeal. Former governor and immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva and the APC, are challenging INEC’s declaration of Diri as the winner of the November 11 governorship poll in Bayelsa State. According to them, the electoral umpire denied them of votes in their “strong areas”, when it cancelled results in three Local Government Areas of Nembe, Ogbia and Southern Ijaw, on alleged disruption of the electoral process and diversion of electoral materials. However, after calling a total of 52 witnesses, out of the 224 lined up to prove their allegations against the election, the petitioners announced that they were satisfied with the prosecution of their case and would like to close it. Following the closure of their case last week, the panel fixed March 4, for the respondents to open their defence. However, the respondents could not open their defence due to the petition against the panel. INEC had declared Diri and the PDP winner of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Bayelsa State, having won majority of the votes cast at the election. According to the Returning Officer, Professor Faruq Kuta, the PDP and Diri polled 175, 196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Timiprey Sylva of the APC who scored 110,108 votes. Dissatisfied, Sylva and APC had approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Diri as winner of the November 11 governorship election. The petitioners are asking the tribunal to hold that contrary to the position of the electoral umpire, election held in some polling units and winners declared at the said units, adding that it was wrong of INEC to disregard the results at the ward and local government level. It is their claim that if the said cancelled results were restored by the court, they would emerge winner of the November election. But the respondents especially INEC which conducted the election submitted that election in three local governments of Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe, did not hold due to incidents of alleged diversions of materials and disruption of the electoral process over alleged bypass of the BVAS machine. They had tendered the Form EC40G to confirm that there were no elections in the said polling units. In addition the respondents brought CTCs of results from INEC to prove that the results brought before the court as evidence that election held at the polling units were forged by the petitioners.

Presidential Tribunal: Atiku, Obi, Tinubu to present final addresses

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja is nearing the conclusion of its proceedings, with Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) set to adopt their final written addresses on Tuesday. These addresses precede the judgment date for all petitions related to the February 25 presidential election, including the challenge against President Bola Tinubu’s victory. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election, with 8,794,726 votes, defeating Atiku Abubakar who secured 6,984,520 votes and Mr. Obi with 6,101,533 votes. Disputing the results, both Atiku and Obi filed separate petitions, claiming victory and challenging Tinubu’s eligibility to run for the presidency. The petitioners seek to have the court declare that President Tinubu did not obtain the majority of lawful votes and to withdraw his Certificate of Return. They are also calling for a fresh presidential election, excluding Tinubu, whom they contend was ineligible to participate in the first place. Obi presented 13 witnesses and various documentary exhibits, while Atiku produced 27 witnesses and additional evidence before the court. INEC and President Tinubu each had one witness in their defense, and the APC did not produce any witnesses. The Respondents, including INEC, President Tinubu, and APC, have all submitted written addresses urging the court to dismiss the petitions for lack of merit. They argue that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations beyond reasonable doubt, as required by the law. Atiku’s joint petition with the PDP (marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023) asserts that Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the presidential election was invalid due to non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, and contends that he was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes. The proceedings continue as the nation awaits the judgment that will determine the outcome of the closely contested presidential election.

INEC closes defence in Atiku’s petition with one witness

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) called one witness that testified in the petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. At the resumed proceeding on Monday, INEC tendered four documentary exhibits in evidence, which include a letter dated July 6, 2022, which the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, wrote to notify it of his decision to withdraw as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Borno Central Senatorial election. Led in evidence by INEC’s lead counsel, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the witness, Mr. Lawrence Bayode, who is a Deputy Director of ICT at the Commission, tendered the letter and its accompanying certification, which was admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibits RA-1 and RA-2. Under cross-examination by counsel to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Olanipekun, SAN, the witness, insisted that the presidential election held on February 25, was “free, fair, credible and conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.” The witness also told counsel to APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the witness said that the technical glitch that was experienced on Election Day did not affect the actual scores of all the presidential candidates, which he said remained intact. He further told the court that the results of the presidential election were not electronically collated, saying it was done manually. “INEC does not have an electronic collation system,” he insisted, adding that INEC had few days to the presidential poll, and announced that electronic transmission of results of the election would not be feasible. However, while being cross-examined by counsel to the Petitioners, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, the witness, told the court that the European Union, EU, Observation Mission was accredited by INEC to monitor the 2023 general elections. On if he was aware that the EU has released its final report on the election, the witness, said: “Yes I am aware, but I have not seen it.” When he was shown a certified copy of the EU’s report and asked to read from a portion of it, the Respondents raised objections. Though they opposed the admissibility of the report as part of the proof of evidence in the case, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel of the court admitted it in evidence as Exhibit RA-6. The witness, read a paragraph in the report where the EU stated that 2023 was not “a transparent and inclusive election” as promised by the INEC. He also read a portion of the report that stated that “only 31% of results uploaded in I-REV was formally or mathematically correct.” However, he maintained that technological innovations that INEC introduced into the electoral process were to guarantee transparency and integrity of the results. Also, the lead counsel to Tinubu, informed the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, its readiness to open his defence to petitions seeking to nullify his client’s election, on Tuesday. Tribunal admits EU final report, faulting Tinubu’s election. The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) Monday, admitted as exhibit, the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission, which faulted the conduct and outcome of the 2023 presidential election that produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and others. The report tendered by the former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar was admitted as exhibit in spite of vehement objections by President Bola Tinubu, All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In the report, the EU election observer mission claimed that the presidential election did not show credibility, fairness, and transparency in the ways and manners it was conducted by INEC. The report tendered through INEC’s sole witness and Director of Information Technology (IT), Dr. Lawrence Bayode said only 31 percent of the presidential election result was uploaded into INEC’s result viewing portal. Before the admission of the report, Atiku through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN had applied that cross-examination of the INEC’S witness must be kick-started by Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress APC in view of their common interests against Atiku’s petition. The application was however bluntly opposed by Tinubu and APC through their lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun SAN, and Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi SAN respectfully. However, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel admitted it as evidence.