A socio-cultural organisation, Niger-Delta Peace and Justice Movement on<\/p>\n
Sunday raised the alarm that the governorship candidate of the All
\nProgressives Congress (APC) in the last election in Bayelsa State, Timipre
\nSylva, was trying to frustrate the Supreme Court from serving him with the
\ncounter appeal filed by the incumbent governor Henry Seriake Dickson.<\/p>\n
The organisation also accused him of using surrogates in the media to
\nsponsor \u201cuntenable whitewashing\u201d to canvass for a favourable position on
\nhis appeal against the election of the state governor.<\/p>\n
The General Secretary of NDPJM, Stephen Ebibofa, in a statement claimed
\nthat Sylva was trying to buy time by dodging the Supreme Court bailiffs
\nfrom serving him or his lawyer the appeal papers.<\/p>\n
According to hm, it was obvious that Sylva\u2019s antics were meant to
\nmanipulate the judiciary for a favour in the case.<\/p>\n
Governor Dickson, PDP and INEC had countered Sylva\u2019s appeal challenging
\nthe verdict of the Court of Appeal which had upheld Dickson\u2019s election.
\nBut all attempts by the apex court bailiffs to serve Sylva, it was
\ngathered, proved abortive for the whole of last week.<\/p>\n
Investigations showed that the Lead Counsel to Sylva, Sebastine Hon, SAN,
\nshut his Abuja office, located at16, Dan Suleiman Street, behind Utako
\nMarket in Utako Central Business District in Abuja, throughout last week
\nto evade being served with the court papers.<\/p>\n
It was further gathered that the bailiffs, who were sighted at Hon\u2019s
\noffice on Thursday and Friday last week, left the office frustrated.<\/p>\n
However, sources close to Sylva hinted that the office will continue to be
\nshut for the whole of this week to drag the matter further and buy time
\nuntil a new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is appointed on November
\n10before Sylva and his lawyer will be available for service of the court
\npapers.<\/p>\n
Ebibofa intimated in the statement that the Presidency and APC leadership
\nwere heaping pressure on the current CJN not to assign the Sylva appeal to
\nany panel of justices until Justice Onoghen is sworn in as CJN. This, he
\nstated, was a calculated attempt to influence the course of justice as he
\nwarned of the consequences of such intentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSylva is causing unnecessary delay to avoid the hearing of the\u00a0 appeal he
\nbrought before the Supreme Court. It is instructive for all patriots to
\nnote that the likes of Sylva are a threat to our democracy and judiciary.
\nObviously, he has no respect for institutions of state, believing that any
\ninstitution can be bought or rubbished as he\u2019s bragging and boasting all
\nover and dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari but he can\u2019t
\nescape the proper hearing of this consequential appeal\u201d, the group stated.<\/p>\n
When contacted last night, the Special Adviser on Media Relations to
\nGovernor Dickson, Francis Agbo criticized Sylva for wasting the precious
\ntime of the Supreme Court and advised the apex court not to be intimidated
\nby Sylva and the APC.<\/p>\n
While declaring that Bayelsans overwhelmingly re-elected Governor Dickson
\nin the polls, Agbo noted that Sylva’s hide and seek game will not distract
\nthe Governor from delivering on his campaign promises to the people.<\/p>\n
Ebibofa also lashed out at the former governor for his alleged sponsorship
\nof \u201cuntenable whitewashing\u2019 publications in the media to canvass for a
\n\u201cquestionable ruling\u201d at the apex court.<\/p>\n
He drew specific attention to a publication by one Anayo Okolie in THISDAY
\nNewspapers dated October 30 and entitled: \u201cBayelsa: Who is afraid of the
\nSupreme Court\u201d which, he claimed, went beyond the curve of objective
\njournalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resort to using sponsored surrogates in the media cannot save Sylva
\nand his acolytes as we believe justice will be done as a necessity in this
\ncase\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A socio-cultural organisation, Niger-Delta Peace and Justice Movement on Sunday raised the alarm that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last election in Bayelsa State,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n