Timipre Sylva
Hearing in the substantive petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Timipreye Sylva, began yesterday with the petitioner calling its first witness.
The matter was however again stalled due to wrong pagination of the petition by the petitioners and the tribunal had to adjourn, to enable the petitioner reconcile the numbering of the pages.
APC and its candidate had filed a petition challenging the election of Seriake Dickson of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as governor of Bayelsa State on the ground of irregularities.
While being crossed examined by the lead counsel to the governor, Tayo Oyetibo, the witness told the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, that elections were conducted peacefully at Okoroma in Southern Ijaw Local Council, until the arrival of Dickson at a polling unit.
Giving details of the governor’s arrival, the witness, David Boyai, who is a chieftain of the APC, said violence erupted after the arrival of Governor Seriake at 2pm at Ward One of the Southern Ijaw LG on Dec 6, 2015.
In a short ruling, the Tribunal Chairman Kazeem Alogba, held that by calling the witness, the hearing has automatically started. Thus, he said the application could not be granted because it was premature and speculative.
Guardian