Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Doifie Ola, Sylva notes that “INEC has taken the right decision as an impartial umpire by acknowledging and stating clearly that the subject of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the governorship election is validly before a court of law, and that as an institution that respects the rule of law and democracy, it would not do anything to prejudice the final outcome of the matter in court.”
The statement by the CPS says Governor Sylva assures his supporters that he has a good case and believes in due process and the rule of law. As a democrat, he urges his supporters to remain calm and await the outcome of the case.
It would be recalled that in the run-up to the 19th November, 2011 PDP governorship primary in Bayelsa State, the governor approached the Federal High Court in Abuja following his exclusion from the primary by the PDP apparatchik. The governor asked the court to uphold his candidature on the basis of the January 2011 primary or, on the contrary, allow him to participate in any primary that will be conducted by his party, PDP. The learned judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, consequently ordered PDP to show cause why the governor’s prayers should not be granted, and cautioned that the status quo be maintained.
But in complete disregard for the court processes, the PDP went ahead to conduct an illegal primary election, and followed it up by filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal has since ruled that the High Court has jurisdiction to hear the governor’s suit.
According to the statement, the PDP has now filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, to which Governor Sylva has cross-appealed. The governor is arguing that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it held that some pronouncements of Justice Kolawole amount to pre-judging the issues before him.
No comments:
Post a Comment