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10—SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2019 GOV POLL: The unfinished business in Bayelsa •Why all eyes will be on judiciary By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor WITH the declaration of Chief David Lyon of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the Bayelsa 2019 governorship election, the battle has arguably fully left the political firmament for the sacred temple of the Judiciary. A salad of pre-election issues were pending in court before the November 16 governorship election. Now, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which has lost its 20-year unbroken hold on the riverine state, since the return of democracy in 1999, will add to the issues in the Judiciary when it goes to the Governorship Election Tribunal. Lyon won six of the eight local councils of Bayelsa and scooped 352,552 of the 499,551 valid votes cast at the poll. He left a miserly 143,172 votes for Senator Douye Diri of the PDP, giving him a massive gap of 219,380 votes. Diri and Governor Seriake Dickson are shouting blue murder, alleging that the military connived with the APC to manipulate the results. While Dickson supplied video evidence to buttress his allegation, Diri claimed he won the election on account of Situation Room results monitored by PDP agents, and vowed to challenge Lyon’s victory at the tribunal. When Diri files his petition, it will take the number of cases the court will decide to four. The first is Senator Heineken Lokpobiri’s suit challenging the emergence of Lyon as the APC candidate while the second is Mr. Timi Alaibe’s case against the victory of Diri at the PDP primaries. The PDP candidate and his running mate also have a suit against Lyon and the Deputy Governor-elect, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo. Disqualification of Degi-Eremienyo Five days to the election, a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, disqualified Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo as sought by the PDP candidate on the grounds that he supplied false information in the CF0001 Form he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, contrary to the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. The court ruled that the act amounted to giving false information in violation of Section 31(5) and (6) of the 2010 Electoral Act. In its ruling, the court held that “the governorship primary conducted by the APC in Bayelsa State was not done in compliance with the guidelines and the constitution of the party, and, therefore, the party has no candidate The judgement compromised the candidacy of the APC candidate in view of Section 187 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). By virtue of section 187(1) of the 1999 Constitution,’a candidate for the office of Governor of a State shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy Governor and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Deputy Governor if the candidate who nominated him is duly elected as Governor in accordance with the said provisions. Disqualification of Lyon Two days to the election, another Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, declared that the APC had no governorship candidate in the November 16 election. The court presided over by Justice Jane Inyang gave the ruling in a case filed by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, one of the APC governorship aspirants. Lokpobiri, a former Minister of State for Agriculture, had approached the court, seeking a declaration, that he, and ALL THE RESULTS A – 1,339 AAC – 174 AD – 91 ADP – 120 ADAP – 30 ANP – 21 APA – 157 APC – 352,552 APGA – 98 APN – 25 APP – 149 ASD – 22 BNPP – 7 CAP – 18 CNP – 22 DA – 9 DPC – 148 not David Lyon is the authentic candidate of the APC. In its ruling, the court held that “the governorship primary conducted by the APC in Bayelsa State was not done in compliance with the guidelines and the constitution of the party, and, therefore, the party has no candidate.” Appeal court gives Lyon, running mate lifeline However, in a twist, less than 30 hours to the election, the Court of Appeal in Abuja cleared the APC to participate in the election ordered a stay of execution of the judgement of the Abuja Federal High Court which disqualified the APC deputy governorship candidate over false information. The panel, chaired by Justice Stephen Adah, issued an interim order of stay of execution of the judgement of the Federal High Court of November 12, 2019, pending the determination of “the motion on notice for order of interlocutory injunction filed on 13 November, 2019.” The appellate court also ordered the INEC to maintain status quo ante bellum which existed on or before September 19, 2019 when the suit was filed at the lower court, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive matter by the court. Alaibe’s case against Diri Former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and one of the 21 PDP governorship aspirants Chief Timi Alaibe Alaibe, approached the court on September 13, 2019, with an application for cancellation of the result of the primary won DPP – 96 FJP – 24 FRESH – 283 GPN – 7 HDP – 10 KP – 61 LM LP – 100 – 79 MMN – 14 MPN – 9 NCP – 30 NDLP – 6 NPC – 108 NRM – 3 NUP – 27 PDM – 156 PDP – 143,172 PPA – 56 PPP – 42 PRP – 88 SNC – 42 UDP – 10 UP – 25 UPC – 37 UPN – 5 UPP – 37 ZLP – 53 Total no of registered voters – 922,522 Total no of accredited voters – 517,883 Total valid votes – 499,551 Rejected votes – 6,333 Total votes cast – 505,884 by Diri over alleged procedural flaws. The suit filed pursuant to Order 3(9) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, sought answers to questions bordering on obvious non-adherence to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2010, the PDP Constitution and Election Guidelines, by the State Chapter of the party in the conduct of the Ward Congresses, inclusion of local government council officials in the delegates list and the procedure for inclusion of three adhoc delegates. Citing specific sections of relevant laws and guidelines, Alaibe asked the court to examine the entire processes that resulted in the primaries and rule in his favour in the light of violations committed in a desperate move to impose a pre-determined hand-picked candidate on the people out of 21 aspirants. Currently, the case has been transferred to Abuja on Alaibe’s request and will no longer be heard in Yenagoa. Unfinished business Although, Lyon was on Thursday given his certificate of return as governor-elect by the INEC, much will depend on the how the courts resolve the cases. In essence, Bayelsa is faced with at least six scenarios regarding who takes over from Dickson. As it is the governorship lot could still remain with Lyon or fall on Diri, Lokpobiri, Alaibe, Diriyai and another candidate in the event of a fresh election. First, Lyon will retain his mandate if the courts dismiss Diri and PDP’s petitions; disagree with the lower court on the disqualification of his running mate; as well as on Lokpobiri’s case. If this does not happen, scenario two obtains with Diri of the PDP, who came second in the election, becoming the governor. Also, Diri would lose the seat to Alaibe if the courts agreed with the former NDDC managing director. In the event that the courts hold that the APC and PDP’s primaries were not conducted in line with the parties’ constitutions and they had no candidates, the lot will fall on the Accord Candidate, Ebizimo Diriyai, who came third in the election with a miserly 1,339 votes. It is not clear if Diriyai’s 1,339 votes will meet the requirement to be declared a governor or whether a fresh election will be ordered, if the matter gets to this stage. This is one of the reasons all eyes will be on the Judiciary in the days ahead.
SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2019—11 BAYELSA/KOGI: To Gun be the Glory By Omeiza Ajayi On April 9, 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC had fixed governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states for November 2, 2019. However, following complaints by the Bayelsa state Government that the date coincided with its ‘Thanksgiving Day’, the electoral umpire then shifted the polls to November 16, 2019 in both states. For INEC to have fixed a date for the two elections, several months earlier, presupposes that the electoral commission was ready for the exercise. Between then and few days to the polls, INEC had constantly engaged various stakeholders including the media, signed Memorandum of Understanding MoU with the Air force and transport unions to take charge of logistics; then with anti-graft agencies to reduce the influence of vote buying and or inducement. It met with the Inter agency Consultative Committee on Election Security ICCES and severally met with politicians either directly or through their political parties. The commission also engaged the electorate and ad hoc staff. Unfortunately, most of the lapses experienced came from some of the stakeholders. Electoral materials, both sensitive and non-sensitive materials were deployed on time in both states ahead of the election. However, transporting some of them to the Polling Units on election day was an issue in some places where members of the transport unions engaged for that purpose failed to show up on time. On security, the Police alone deployed about 66, 241 officers and men in both states. Other security, intelligence and defence agencies also made thousands of deployments. So, it was with great embarrassment that the world witnessed the outing or conduct of security personnel, especially the police which is the lead agency for internal and election security. If their conduct was embarrassingly shocking, what was even more appalling was the excuse given by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu that fake policemen were used to disrupt the elections! Even if true, were those fake policemen also deployed in their thousands that the “original” policemen and other armed security forces could not match them? With a landmass of 29, 833km² and 21 local government areas, Kogi is Nigeria’s 13th largest state while Bayelsa with a landmass of 10, 773km² is 27th with eight local government areas. The 2006 census also puts the population of Kogi state at Three Million, Three Hundred and Fourteen Thousand and Forty Three (3, 314, 043), while Bayelsa was put at One Million, Seven Hundred and Four Thousand, Five Hundred and Fifteen (1,704,515). The Police said it conducted its threat assessment and when deploying, it sent 35, 200 to Kogi and 31, 041 to Bayelsa! Even if it felt there would be the likelihood of having more arms in Bayelsa as a result of the many years of militancy in the region, the deployment of personnel in Kogi should still have been more than what it was, except ofcourse what the Police hierarchy deployed were just figures on paper and not boots on ground! This is more so as many observers and journalists reported the near absence of policemen in certain areas during the elections. Unfortunately, what they could not achieve by shooting thugs or preventing them from disrupting the polls, the police achieved by turning away some duly accredited and unarmed journalists from accessing the collation centre in both states. That is one irony in Nigeria’s security management - while miscreants and terrorists are sometimes pampered and negotiated with, law abiding citizens are most times dealt with even when there were no infractions on the part of the citizens! It also makes it mandatory for INEC to have an electronic database wherein all the results of an election would be transmitted INEC: A Post Mortem The electoral umpire had begun making preparations for the two off-season elections while preparing for the last general elections, but unfortunately, the elections still turned out in a manner repugnant to the democratic norms. What the nation witnessed was essentially a failure of other stakeholders, not the electoral umpire itself which had played its own part to the extent of even issuing appointment letters to its ad hoc staff, detailing their rights and privileges including their remunerations. This was done to guard against the last minute substitution of trained ad hoc staff for people brought from outside to come and claim the INEC stipends or do the bidding of politicians. It was also to avoid attempts by any Electoral Officer to shortchange the ad hoc staff in terms of payment. It is absurd to hear politicians lampoon INEC for electoral violence. It is even more disheartening that the electorate would blame the electoral umpire for electoral violence. If anyone is to blame, it is the politicians, the electorate and the security agencies, listed in order of precedence. The politicians who give peanuts to people to engage in violent acts; the electorate whose sons, brothers or other relations accept those peanuts from politicians; then, the security agencies whose duty it is to do conflict mapping, threat assessment and prevent violence or rein in the “bad boys” before, during and after the elections. Way Forward As it stands, Nigeria has a long way to go, seeing how security operatives who should enforce the laws were inactive during the two elections. There had been cases where they aided rigging. However, all hope is not lost. President Muhammadu Buhari would do well to ensure that, under his administration, the votes of the people count. One way of doing that is to create an Electoral Offences Commission. For now, INEC has no capacity to successfully ensure the prosecution of all electoral offenders. In every election in Nigeria, the electoral umpire has never succeeded in prosecuting up to five percent of offenders! Then, there is the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which the president refused assent severally in the last dispensation. The bill has been reintroduced in the 9th Senate and only on Wednesday passed Second Reading. One important aspect of the Bill is that in Section 52 (2), it provides for electronic voting. “The commission may adopt electronic voting or any other method of voting in any election it conducts as it may deem fit”, the Bill states. It also makes it mandatory for INEC to have an electronic database wherein all the results of an election would be transmitted. Aside this, the data of all accredited voters must also be transmitted, using the smart card readers, to the central database upon the conclusion of accreditation. These data are expected to be kept by INEC until all electoral disputes are concluded by the Judiciary. If the president had assented to the Bill as was presented to him by the 8th Assembly, perhaps the nation would not have witnessed the series of electoral malfeasance associated with the general elections and the just-concluded governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states. The president may wish to, this time write his name in gold and assent to the Bill when forwarded to him. A lot can be achieved in sanitizing the electoral space before the conduct of Edo and Ondo governorship elections, next year. This is one sure way of changing the narrative from “To Gun be the Glory”, to, “To God be the Glory”. Or, from “In Gun we Trust”, to, “In God we Trust”. The era of seizing power through the barrel of the gun is long gone. The President and the political class must be reminded that Nigerians did not suffer in vain to replace military rule with jackboot democracy. Let democracy reign, not guns, not violence and rigging which have hallmarked our system as shown in the 2019 gensral elections a d the recent ones in Kogi and Bayelsa.
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