Sylva said that he and his party lacked confidence in the capacity of the Bayelsa election petition tribunal members to do justice in the case.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed a motion filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate in the election held last year, Timipre Sylva, requesting members of the tribunal to recuse themselves from further hearing their petition.
Sylva is challenging the outcome of the election which saw Governor Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) re-elected.
In his motion, Sylva said that he and his party lacked confidence in the capacity of the Bayelsa election petition tribunal 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.
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 Bayelsa 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.
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Charles Edosonwan (SAN) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Chris Uche (SAN) for the Bayelsa Governor, Diri; Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh (SAN) for the Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, and Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) for PDP) urged the tribunal 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 adjourned till March 13 for INEC, listed as the first respondent, to open its defence.
