By Gbenga Abulude
The Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) has put the judgement of the Bayelsa Election Petition Tribunal in jeopardy by dissociating itself from the petition and tribunal judgment on the alleged unlawful exclusion of its party’s candidate from the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the South-South state.
The petition tribunal in Abuja, on Monday had annulled the Bayelsa Governorship election that brought Governor Duoye Diri to power and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election in the state within 90 days.
This verdict had put palpable tension on the people and government of Bayelsa even as Governor Diri continued to calm strained nerves and has gone ahead to appeal the judgement.
Read also: Gov Diri’s Sack: Protests Rock Bayelsa As Groups Call On Petitioner To Withdraw Case
However, addressing a press conference on Thursday, August 20 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, three days after the judgment was delivered, the ANDP which had the party State Secretary, Pastor Sapere-Obi Endukakpo, the Publicity Secretary, Mr Charles Krotezi and the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Fortune Oyadongha in attendance distanced itself from the petition and tribunal judgment.
The State Secretary, Pastor Endukakpo, stated that the ANDP was never a party to the petition filed before the tribunal.
According to him, ANDP could not, therefore, have dragged INEC before the tribunal to complain about the alleged unlawful exclusion of the party’s candidate from the election.
This new twist is coming days after INEC came out to challenge the tribunal judgement, claiming that at no time did the party fielded a valid deputy governorship candidate for the November 2019 election.
The party State secretary said, “As at the time of the said elections, the party was still in its formative stage and yet to create structures necessary to run a successful campaign.
“Consequently, the party at the state level, in consultation with the National Executive, in its wisdom, opted to endorse the candidate whose vision and manifesto best mirrored the aspirations of the ANDP for a greater Bayelsa State.
“In that consideration, we met and agreed to support the candidature of His Excellency, Senator Douye Diri, of the Peoples Democratic Party. This decision, the ANDP officially communicated to Diri, in a letter dated November 4, 2019 and also went on to published same in some national dailies.
“Thus the judgment of the election petition tribunal sacking the Bayelsa governor is a surprise to the party.”
This development has put doubts into the order for a re-run of the election in 90 days. Also Governor Diri has appealed the tribunal judgement. The appeal court judgement is expected to determine the fate of Diri. But it already appears the ANDP has made the appeal judgement easy in favour of the present Governor.
A close look at the copy of the judgment of the Tribunal shows that the petition which has the reference number EPT/BY/GOV/03/2020 has the ANDP as the petitioner, while INEC, PDP and Douye Diri are the respondents.
Read also: Gov. Diri’s Sack: INEC Speaks On Election Tribunal Ruling
The Election Petition Tribunal which had Hon. Justice Mohammed I. Sirajo as chairman and Hon. Justice Yunusa Musa and Hon. Justice S.M. Onwudunni as first and second member respectively, however delivered a split judgment of two to one with the chairman delivering the dissent judgment.
It is still unclear whether the judgment delivered by the Tribunal was at the instance of a faction of the ANDP but an unconfirmed source had suggested that those who are dissociating the party from the judgment may have been allegedly sponsored by the State government.
