Bayelsa judgement: What Supreme Court should have done – Itse Sagay

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Prof Sagay

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay SAN, has said that the Supreme Court erred to have invalidated the election of All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Bayelsa State, David Lyon.

He said that the apex court ought to have instead nullified the November 16, 2019 election, ordered fresh polls and allowed the APC to nominate another candidate.

The law professor noted that the Supreme Court should not turn itself into an elector of persons that have been rejected at the polls.

According to the APC chieftain, the apex court appeared to have allowed itself be blackmailed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the Imo judgement of January 14.

Reacting to the February 13 judgement, Sagay said, “That is very wrong. What they should have done is to nullify the election and let the APC nominate another person.

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“This whole of idea of the Supreme Court becoming electors of people who are defeated over those who are victorious is perverse and very wrong.

“That was what I complained about in the Zamfara case. It is unfortunate and to that extent, I totally disagree with it because it is unjust.

“The PDP man lost. You can give him a second chance because the APC candidate did not get valid nomination.

“They are not to award victory to a man who people did not vote for. You can’t replace the votes of the electorates with your votes as the judiciary.

“That I can never reconcile myself to and I hope it is not the noise and acrimony the PDP made on the Imo election that is causing all these to happen.”

Sagay accused the present Supreme Court of not making dispensation of justice its primary focus.

He warned that this could further erode confidence in the judiciary as the ultimate resolver of major problems.

“As I have always said, it is my belief that when there is any issue in a case, the first question a judge should ask is ‘where does the justice of the case lies’? Especially at the Supreme Court level, you don’t need to start worrying about what you have decided upon being reversed. So, you can afford to do justice.

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“What I have found unfortunately and contrary to what used to be the case when people like late Justices Kayode Eso, Chukwudifu Oputa, Obaseki, Nnamani were in the Supreme Court in the 80s and 90s is that the present Supreme Court has not made justice its number one objectives.

“Let me take two recent examples to support my claim. Look at Zamfara for example. Election was held and the people of the state massively voted for APC.

“Now, the Supreme Court found out that the nomination process of APC was faulty; but instead of ordering a nullification of the whole process of election, they eliminated the votes of the vast majority of Zamfara people and turned itself into the electorates and in effect, installed a government of PDP, a party that has been heavily defeated in Zamfara state with Supreme Court votes.

“That defeats the whole aim of democracy because power has been removed entirely from the electorates and the Supreme Court is exercising, not only electoral powers but in a manner contrary to the decision of the electorates,” Sagay said.

 

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