Sylva, APC ask Appeal Court to nullify Dickson’s election

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) have ap­pealed the July 26, 2016 judgment of the election tribunal which upheld the return of Henry Seriake Dickson as winner of the last governorship election in the state.

In the appeal filed be­fore the Court of Appeal, Abuja on August 14, 2016 by their lawyer, Sebastine Hon (SAN), Sylva faulted the tribunal judgment and raised 24 grounds of ap­peal in that regard.

They argued among oth­ers, that the three-member tribunal, led by Justice Ka­zeem Alogba, misled itself, misapplied the law and came to wrong conclusion in its verdict.

Sylva and APC asked the Court of Appeal to, among others, set aside the judgment and grant his reliefs as contained in his petition or the alter­native reliefs, including cancellation of the elec­tion and ordering fresh one.

The ex-governor and his party argued that the tribunal erred in law when it held that the reasons given by the Independent National Electoral Com­mission (INEC) to cancel the election was within the provision of Section 26(1) of the Electoral Act (EA) 2010.

They argued that Sec­tion 26(1) of the Electoral Act has no provision for “cancellation” of election, but “postponement” of election.

“The phrase “other emergencies” under Sec­tion 26(1) E A is limited to the action of INEC ‘postponing’ an election and not ‘cancelling’ one that had already taken place,” they said.

The appellants, who noted that his major com­plaint was that INEC’s Electoral Officer in the state acted unlawfully in cancelling the result of elections already held in Southern Ijaw Local Gov­ernment on December 6, 2015, argued that the tri­bunal was wrong to have upheld INEC’s claim that the election was post­poned.