An ex-legislator of Yagba East local government council of Kogi state, Hon Barnabas Ejuku Abiodun, has reacted to public outbursts that greeted the Supreme Court judgement that sacked David Lyon, the APC Governor-elect of Bayelsa State penultimate week.
In his reaction, he faulted the nomination of the Deputy Governorship candidate. According to him, if the nomination of a Deputy validates the candidacy of the flag bearer, it becomes a joint ticket, hence, “if discovered that a Deputy was not validly nominated what do we expect than a failed ticket?”
He advised politicians to stop dwelling on sentiments but facts. He noted that allegation of certificate forgery against the Deputy Governorship candidate has been ongoing even before he was fielded as Lyon’s running mate.
“The Party cannot deny that fact. INEC, rather than doing the right thing ab initio, prefers to take orders from above, hence clearing and publishing his name alongside the candidate as qualified for the election,” he said.
Hon Barnabas also admonished Nigerians against the culture of defending the indefensible actions of politicians and to desist from justification of illegalities, the brunt of which comes back to the people in form of poor level of morals in the polity and denial of good governance.
He expressed his sympathies for David Lyon for having wasted resources and valuable time, only to have his election nullified and his ambition truncated on the eve of his being sworn in as the substantive Governor of Bayelsa State.
He further counseled politicians to learn from David Lyon’s political misfortune by not just accepting anything that comes their way or thrown at them by political leaders in the name of politics. He posited that background checks of would be Deputy Governorship candidates must be carried out by the Governorship flag bearer himself to avoid falling into similar situation in future.
He opined that the political leaders may have imposed the result forger on David Lyon to frustrate justice in his certificate forgery case which had been ongoing and threatening to evict him from the Senate by using the position of Deputy Governor to gift him immunity against all forms of litigation which unfortunately boomeranged with the timely Supreme Court judgement of February 13 2020.
“It is high time we insisted on doing the right things no matter whose ox is gored without fear or favour,” he concluded.
