Aspirants allege misconduct in the primary election that was conducted despite a court order restraining same.
When a bailiff from the Federal High Court, Abuja served the order of an interim injunction restraining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding the gubernatorial primary election in Bayelsa State, to every discerning mind, the Sylva-PDP scuffle on who gets the party’s ticket had just begun.
The incumbent state governor, Timipre Sylva had approached the Federal High Court, Abuja praying the court to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accepting any fresh submission of names of governorship aspirants from PDP pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed before it.
According to his team of lawyers, the party's candidate's name had already been submitted to INEC after the January 2011 primary election in Bayelsa.
The court officer went to the National Headquarters of the PDP at Wadata House at about 2:30pm last Wednesday and pasted the order on the wall at the time when the seven cleared aspirants for the Bayelsa State primary election were getting ready for the collection of their clearance certificates.
The court order brought about confusion and apprehension at the party’s national headquarters as all the people present for the celebration - the aspirants, their supporters and even the journalists - expressed worries about what the outcome of such legal action might turn out to be.
Even Seriake Dickson, who eventually emerged winner of the primary election, was seen making telephone calls to those he felt must be informed of the development.
Shortly after the formal handing over of the final clearance certificates to the seven aspirants that day, Dickson, in an interview with journalists, argued that the cleared aspirants too must be joined in the suit “because we are party in the case. We will consult our lawyers on the issue”.
Bringing in another angle, an aggrieved aspirant, Austin Febo said that the primary election would only go ahead when the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) must have handled the issue of the discrepancy of non-conduct of the Ward Congresses which the party claimed were well-conducted but which 6 aspirants claimed were manipulated in Dickson’s favour.
The news of Sylva’s legal action against the party featured prominently in the national dailies the following day.
An election marred by irregularities
Though Dickson emerged the winner of the PDP gubernatorial primary election in the state, with a total of 355 votes out of the 384 votes cast, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not take part in the election as the Chief Press Secretary to Professor Jega, Kayode Idowu said INEC “is law abiding and will obey the court order”.
Even President Goodluck Jonathan, who also had voting rights in the primary election, did not attend his state’s primaries.
The primary was, however, conducted under the watch of the PDP Election Committee Chairman and Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd).
What worries one most is that in spite of all available evidence proving service of the court order, the PDP went ahead to conduct the election in the absence of the country’s electoral body, claiming that it did not receive any injunction stopping the exercise.
This, of course, makes it obvious that the whole idea was nothing but a political trick to allow the party achieves its aim of fronting a particular candidate for the gubernatorial election come next year.
Even the entire election process showed that all was not well; no fewer than three of the seven aspirants left the Samson Siasia Stadium, the venue of the election, in protest against what they described as gross election manipulation.
A party above the law?
However, if the PDP, as it has claimed, was yet to be served with the order of injunction, could the display of the document pasted by the gate of Wadata House also be deceptive?
The party had cited the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended to back its resolute action, saying it was ready, through its legal team, to argue its position in any competent court of law.
According to the PDP: “In taking the decision to go ahead with the gubernatorial primary elections as scheduled, the party wishes to draw the attention of our members and the general public to the provisions of section 87 (10) of the 2010 Electoral Act, as amended, which provides that, ‘nothing in this section shall empower the courts to stop the holding of primaries or general elections under this Act pending the determination of any suit’.
“We also wish to refer to section 31 (1) of the same Electoral Act which limits the time within which a political party must submit names of its candidates to INEC, to not later than 60 days, to the date of elections.”
Meanwhile, the court order endorsed by Hon. Justice G.O. Kolawole in the suit between the plaintiff, Timipre Sylva and INEC, PDP and Abukakar Kawu Baraje, who are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively, had read that:
“An order of interim injunction restraining the 2nd and 3rd defendants, whether by themselves, servants, agents, privies or howsoever called from forwarding a fresh name or governorship aspirant to the 1st defendant when the plaintiff is still alive and has not withdrawn his candidacy for the governorship election of Bayelsa State, pending the determination of the motion on notice.
“An order of interim injunction mandating the defendants, whether by themselves, their servants, agents, privies or howsoever called to publish the name of the plaintiff as an aspirant for the 19th November, 2011 governorship primaries in Bayelsa State or any governorship primary election scheduled for Bayelsa State, on any date which the defendants may choose pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
Even if President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP had “an anointed aspirant” for the election, they should have realised that the country is governed by laws and they must subject themselves to those laws because no one is above the laws of the land.
If indeed it advocates the rule of law in Nigeria, the PDP should have done the right thing. The PDP, as the largest political party in the country, and in fact all over Africa, should have desisted from laying bad precedence.
Like INEC, the Party should have allowed the law to take its course in electoral matters. Also, President Jonathan must have known that the PDP’s primary election in Bayelsa State was another litmus test to decide if the ruling party and the present government were truly ready for the transformation they preached.
As Nigerians continue to watch the political events unfold in Bayelsa State, only time will tell the end, but as the late reggae music legend, Bob Marley sang: “You can fool some people sometimes; but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
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