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The Supreme Court on Thursday nullified the election of Chief David Lyon as the governor- elect of Bayelsa  State and  Mr. Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo  as the deputy governor-elect.

The court nullified their nominations because Degi-Eremienyo presented forged certificates to the Independent National Election Commission (INEC).

The Supreme Court also stated that the disqualification has nullified the joint ticket on which he contested the election with Lyon. This nullification, which came to many Nigerians as a shock, came barely two days after the same court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, which ruled against Lokpobiri’s appeal on the outcome of the September 4, 2019 primary of the APC in Bayelsa State. The court ruled that the former minister filed his case out of the time allowed by law.

In a judgment read by Justice Inyang Okoro, the five-member panel held that Section 285, sub-section 9 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) does not admit any elongation of time when it comes to pre-election matters and  affirmed the candidature  of Lyon as the authentic candidate of the  APC in the November 16, 2019 Governorship election in the state.

The Supreme Court also ordered the INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Lyon and Degi-Eremienyo after the November 16, 2019 election and same be issued to Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his Deputy.

Read Also: ‘Faleke’s endorsement of Bello a scam’

This latest judgment of the Supreme Court has raised some posers about the position of our law on tickets jointly shared by gubernatorial candidates and their deputies.

This   was first witnessed in the case of the late Prince Abubakar Audu and James Faleke in Kogi State governorship elections held on November 21, 2015. Prince Audu was the governorship candidate and Faleke as his deputy governorship candidate in the hotly contested elections.

However, Prince Audu died before the declaration of the results of the election and that made the INEC to declare the elections inconclusive.

Opinions were divided on whether Faleke should succeed Audu and enjoy the result of the inconclusive elections or whether he should forget the contest and go home.

The Supreme Court stated that, with the declaration of the election as inconclusive, and the consequent death of Audu, Mr. Faleke could no longer lay any legal right in the said votes.  This is sequel to Section 187(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that a deputy governorship candidate shall:

“be deemed to have been validly elected to the office of the deputy governor, if the candidate who in accordance with the said provisions.”

With the declaration of the election as inconclusive, and the consequent death of Audu, the appellant can no longer lay any legal right in the said votes.  This is sequel to Section 187. (1), which states that: “In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this part of this chapter relate, 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”

From the above provisions of the constitution, it is clear that in governorship elections, the governorship candidate and his running mate share a joint ticket, which may stand together in victory or fall and collapse together in case of defeat or fundamental breach of the law.

This is what has happened in Bayelsa State, no matter how painful. It is the law as the Supreme Court has spoken.

Credit: The Nation


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