Tag: Sylva

The Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed a motion filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in last year’s poll, Timipre Sylva, requesting members of the tribunal to recuse themselves from further hearing his petition.

Sylva, who is challenging the outcome of the election, claimed in the motion he filed that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and himself (the petitioners) lacked confidence in the capacity of the tribunal’s members to do justice in the case. 

In a ruling yesterday, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Adekunle Adeleye, held that a letter from the President of the Court of Appeal on March 5 mandated the tribunal to proceed with the hearing of the petition irrespective of any application by the parties.

Read Also: Bayelsa: Tribunal dismisses Sylva’s request for members to step down

Justice Adeleye held that the directive, as contained in the letter by the President of the Court of Appeal, had overridden the request by the petitioners for the tribunal members to disqualify themselves from further hearing his petition.

Arguing the motion yesterday, lawyer to the petitioners, Tunde Falola, had said his clients were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they could not get justice from members of the panel.

Falola said his clients believed that members of the tribunal had exhibited some traits which indicated that the petitioners would be denied fair hearing.

He prayed the tribunal members to, in the interest of justice, step aside and allow the President of the Court of Appeal to reconstitute a fresh panel to hear the petition within the time left for the expiration of the petition.

Charles Edosonwan (SAN) – for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Chris Uche (SAN) – for Governor Douye Diri; Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh (SAN) – for the Deputy Governor,Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, and Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) – for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged the court to dismiss the motion.

The Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed a motion filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship poll in the state, Timipre Sylva requesting members of the tribunal to recuse themselves from further hearing his petition.

Sylva, who is by his petition, challenging the outcome of the election, claimed in the motion that his party and himself (the petitioners) lacked confidence in the capacity of the tribunal’s members to do justice in the case.

In a ruling on Monday, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Adekunle Adeleye held that a letter from the President of the Court of Appeal on March 5, mandated the tribunal to proceed with the hearing of the petition irrespective of any application by the parties.

Justice Adeleye added that the directive, as contained in the letter by the President of the Court of Appeal, has overridden the request by the petitioners for the tribunal members to disqualify themselves from further hearing his petition.

Read Also: ‘Recuse yourself from Sylva/Diri’s case’

Lawyer to the petitioners, Tunde Falola had, while arguing the motion on Monday said his clients were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they could not get justice from members of the panel.

Falola said it was the view of his clients that members of the tribunal have exhibited some conduct that made them believe that the petitioners would be denied a fair hearing.

He prayed the tribunal members to, in the interest of justice, step aside and allow the President of the Court of Appeal to reconstitute a fresh panel to hear the petition within the time left for the expiration of the petition.

Charles Edosonwan (SAN) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Chris Uche (SAN) for Governor Douye Diri; Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh (SAN) for the Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, and Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged the court to dismiss the motion.

They contended that the motion was an attempt by the petitioners to prevent the respondents from presenting their defence in the case.

The respondents’ lawyers argued that the motion by Sylva and the APC was a calculated attempt to blackmail the members of the tribunal to do their bidding.

They noted that since the petitioners closed their case even when the time allocated to them had not expired, there was no basis for their allegation of denial of fair hearing.

The respondents added that Sylva and his party were part of the pre-hearing session and fully subscribed to the schedule of time as agreed upon by the parties.

The tribunal has however adjourned till March 13 for INEC, listed as the first respondent, to open its defence.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election in Bayelsa state, Timipre Sylva has accused members of the tribunal hearing his petition against the outcome of the election of being biased.

In a March 4 petition by his lawyer, S. E. Elema (SAN) to the President of the Court of Appeal, Sylva begged for reconstitution of a fresh panel to take his petition.

He accused members of the tribunal of allegedly engaging in inaccurate recording of proceedings and being unduly harsh towards the petitioners.

Sylva and the APC are petitioners in the petition, marked: EPT/BY/Gov/04/2023 while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Douye Diri, Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrujakpo and their party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are listed as respondents.

Sylva accused the tribunal members of allegedly imposing an unrealistic time limit, during which he could only call 49 witnesses out of the 234 he had planned to call.

He claimed that in eleven when the tribunal still had about three months to sit, it limited the petitioners to only eight days to conduct their case.

Sylva had closed his case on February 27 after calling 49 witnesses, following which the tribunal led by Justice A. A. Adeleye (with Justices I. S. Galadima and Abdu Maiwada Abubakar as members) adjourned till March 4 for defence.

When parties got to court on March 4 the tribunal’s chairman, Justice Adeleye told lawyers to the parties that the petitioners had filed a petition, questioning the neutrality and integrity of members of the tribunal.

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He added that the petitioners also want an indefinite adjournment pending the Court of Appeal President’s decision on their petition.

Justice Adeleye then sought the views of lawyers on the responsibility of respondents on the issue.

INEC’s lawyer, Charles Edosomwan (SAN) observed that the APC and Sylva were not fair to the tribunal in their allegations of bias and inaccurate recording of proceedings distortion of facts.

Chris Uche (SAN) for Governor Douye Diri, Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh (SAN) for Deputy Governor Ewhrujakpo, and Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) for the PDP spoke against the petition but conceded to an adjournment.

Ruling, Justice Adeleye granted the petitioner’s request for indefinite adjournment.

He adjourned the case to await the decision of the Court of Appeal President on the petition.

Part of the petition reads: “We respectfully request your lordship to disband and reconstitute the membership of the said tribunal based on the following grounds:

“The petitioners had 234 witnesses to call but the tribunal insisted that the petitioners must call all their witnesses and conclude their case within seven days.

“After much pressure, the tribunal extended the period by one extra day.

“In order to comply with this deadline, the petitioners scheduled to call 25 witnesses per day, but the tribunal could only take about eight witnesses each day.

‘In the face of this impossible situation, the petitioners had no choice but to close their case on Tuesday 27th February, 2024 after calling only 49 witnesses out of the 234 witnesses.

“The case was thereafter adjourned to Monday 4th March, 2024 for defence. In the meantime, counsel to the various parties applied for certified true copies of the record of proceedings.

“It was a clear breach of the right of fair hearing to prevent the petitioners from calling all their witnesses when the lifespan of the tribunal still has over three months to its expiration date.

“Upon the perusal of the record of proceedings, we were perplexed to find that the tribunal had already made their findings and decisions in respect of the authenticity and weight of the documents (polling unit results) tendered by the petitioners even before the conclusion of the case.

“At page 53 (of the record), the tribunal wrote that the petitioners’ witness identified the document shown to him by the respondents, instead of the correct position which is that the petitioner’s witnesses consistently rejected documents shown to them by the respondents as fake.

It further stated: “At page 60, the tribunal wrote that the petitioners’ counsel asked for adjournment whereas what happened was that, upon the insistence of the respondent’s counsel that documents to be tendered were not made available to them beforehand, the tribunal adjourned.

“It is obvious from the forgoing that the petitioners cannot get justice from the tribunal as presently constituted, since it is obvious that the tribunal Chairman has descended into the arena of the legal conflict between the parties.

“In light of the abnormalities mentioned above, we respectfully request your lordship to disband the membership of the tribunal and reconstitute same urgently.

“As earlier indicated above, we have up till the 28th of May, 2024 before the lifespan of the tribunal will expire.

“So, there is still enough time for a new tribunal to start de novo (afresh) and conclude the trial within the constitutional lifespan of 180 days.”

A former Bayelsa state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, has assured Nigerians that the gains of President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies will be massive and far-reaching.

A statement signed on Wednesday, February 7, by Sylva’s special adviser, media and publicity, Julius Bokoru, said Chief Sylva remained very much in line with President Tinubu’s economic policies.

Bokoru recalled that Sylva, a former petroleum minister while campaigning for Tinubu in Bayelsa during the last election described the President as a “modern industrialist.”

He said: “The fact is made even more apparent by the fact Sylva campaigned on the fundamentals of President Tinubu’s ideals: modesty, clarity and a sincere absence of speculation, an agenda of the people for the people.”

Bokoru said there was never a time Chief Sylva directly or indirectly wrote any article against President Tinubu’s economic policies.

He said the attention of Sylva, the governorship candidate and leader of the APC in Bayelsa, was recently drawn to an article, which was critical and caustic to the economic Policies of President Bola Tinubu.

Bokoru said: “The idea of the article, its originators and sponsors, is to create a wedge between Chief Timipre Sylva and his Principal President Bola Tinubu.  This is a cheap shot and one of the most unintelligent acts of political schemes. It reeks of helplessness, lethargy and classless desperation.

“It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that the financiers of such vile acts of antagonism against the Federal Government are those who have made it their life’s single purpose of destroying the image and person of Chief Sylva however they can.

“Their antecedents have made them predictable. So promoting, sponsoring and producing phantom articles, articles they don’t believe themselves, with the ghastly intent of tying their utter mischief to Chief Sylva is nothing that cannot be anticipated, it is not even close to the inner bowels of their cynicism and evil.

“The author of the said piece is not the spokesman of Chief Timipre Sylva or the APC in Bayelsa State. The thoughts expressed are the ruminations of an individual expressing his personal views which aren’t those of Chief Sylva. The former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has a clear and unambiguous channel of communication”.

Read Also: Bayelsa LP candidate seeks Diri’s, Sylva’s disqualification

Bokoru insisted that Sylva remained a known and vocal believer in President Tinubu’s economic blueprint. 

“Chief Sylva has campaigned tirelessly on the efficacy of the president’s economic plans and believes strongly that as a country we are on course for a healthier, sustaining economy.

“Sylva is certain President Tinubu is busy with the task of governance before him and would not be distracted by ridiculous propaganda churned out by anxious, desperate characters who thrive only in their attempts to create discord and chaos.

“Sylva advises that their next act of desperation should have our very dear President nowhere at its desperate and infantile plots.”