Supreme Court seals Dickson’s election as Bayelsa governor

The supreme court has dismissed the appeal of Timipre Sylva, former governor of Bayelsa state, challenging the election of Seriake Dickson, the incumbent governor.

Sylva had sought to be declared as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the state’s 2012 governorship election.

He urged the court to, among other things, determine “whether having regard to the clear provision of Section 178 (2) of the 1999 constitution, as amended, and the supreme court judgment in the consolidated appeal of Marwa v. Nyako (2012) 5NWLR (Pt. 1296), delivered on January 27, 2012 wherein the court held that the tenure of the plaintiff as the governor of Bayelsa state had long expired since May 29, 2012, the gubernatorial election in Bayelsa state became due since April 29, 2011″.

Sylva, who was then in office, emerged as winner of the PDP primary election in January 2011 but that election was nullified by the extension of his tenure by a year.

A federal high court in Yenagoa had ruled on the extension and the court of appeal subsequently upheld the judgment, forcing the party to conduct a fresh primary.

Though Sylva purchased nomination form to participate in the 2012 primaries, the party screened him out.

Dissatisfied with the development, he approached the court.

The court had earlier held that having participated in the process leading to the conduct of the fresh primary, Sylva was deemed to have abandoned his earlier nomination for the cancelled 2011 election.

However, in his judgment, Sylvester Ngwuta, who led a five-man panel, held that the action of the former governor was an abuse of court process and was tantamount to wasting the time of the court.

“He (Sylva) spent his money obtaining the relevant form and campaigned extensively to resurrect the result of the primary he won, but which he impliedly agreed and accepted was dead and buried,” the judge ruled.

“He was not a party to the primary for the election to which he makes the absurd claim of applying the result of primary, which was abandoned when the election for which it was conducted was cancelled.

“He is certainly a busy body, an interloper, who had no reasonable ground to believe in the success of this action and he had the temerity to defy the concurrent decisions of the two courts below to continue his abuse of process of court in the apex court.

“The political class may have unlimited funds and time at their disposal, but the court’s time is precious and should not be wasted in pursuit of shadows by any party or person.

“The two issues, having been resolved against the appellant, I find no merit in the appeal, which is hereby dismissed.”

Ngwuta also ordered Sylva to pay the sum of N500, 000 to Dickson.