BREAKING: Supreme Court To Deliver Judgment In Case Against Lyon

The Supreme Court has suspended proceedings, with a promise to return soon and give its verdict on the appeal by former Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri against the nomination of David Lyon as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State.

A five-man panel of the court, led by Justice Mary Odili, announced a moment ago, after hearing parties, that the court will resume proceedings later to give its judgment on the appeal marked: SC/35/2020.

Respondents in the appeal are the APC, Lyon and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Appellant’s lawyer, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) while adopting his client’s brief, urged the court to hold that Lokpobiri was right to have waited for the outcome of the APC’s appeal process before challenging the outcome of the party’s primary.

Ukala argued that although the result of the primary was announced on September 4, 2019, with the party naming Lyon as the winner, the cause of action arose on September 7, 2019 when the APC submitted Lyon’s name to INEC as its candidate.

He urged the court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which held among others, that the trial court had no jurisdiction to have heard the suit by Lokpobiri, which it said was statute barred and filed outside the time allowed under Section 285 of the Constitution.

Lawyers to the APC and Lyon – Audu Anuka and M. G. Numa – argued otherwise and prayed the court to uphold the judgment of the Court of Appeal and dismiss the appeal by Lokpobiri.

Anuka and Numa argued that the cause of action arose on September 4, 2019 when the result of the primary election was announced and Lyon named as the winner of the election.

They argued that Lokpobiri acted late and was out of time, having not challenged the outcome of the primary within the 14 days allowed by law.

Lawyer to INEC, Wendy Kuku said INEC did not file any brief in respect of the appeal and was not allowed to make any contribution.