Tony Olutomiwa, Yenagoa
One of the governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recent Bayelsa State primaries, Preye Aganaba, has filed a suit at the High Court in the state seeking the nullification of the election of Chief David Lyon, as the party’s candidate.
Aganaba had earlier rejected the result of Lyon’s election in a recent statement citing irregularities.
In his latest action, the aspirant had sued the APC, Lyon and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the court as defendants via a suit he instituted dated September 12.
He is seeking a declaration that the primaries scheduled for September 4 across the 105 wards in the eight local government areas of the state did not take place.
He further asked for a declaration that since there were no primaries, the declaration of results which proclaimed David Lyon the candidate of the party was “illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.”
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He further asked the court to make an order “restraining the APC from presenting Lyon or submitting his name to INEC as candidate of the APC”.
Aganaba’s other reliefs are: “An order restraining INEC from receiving, acting on, publishing or listing the name of Lyon as the governorship candidate of APC.
“An order restraining Lyon from parading himself as or holding himself out as the candidate of the APC in the forthcoming Bayelsa State Governorship election”.
He contended that it is only a primary election that can produce a candidate for an election, adding that if anybody is parading himself as a candidate without a primary poll, it is a waste of time.
He stated: “We have made our point clear but since they failed to address our complaints that there were no primaries in Bayelsa, we have decided to approach the court to interpret to us whether what happened in Bayelsa could qualify for a primary of a political party.
“I was at my ward. There were no party officials to conduct the primary. That means I didn’t even have the privilege of voting for myself. The same with other aspirants.”