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BAYELSA GUBER: PDP primary goes ahead as Alaibe loses in court

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BAYELSA GUBER: PDP downplays last minute defections from the party

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary to select its candidate for the coming governorship election in Bayelsa State has taken off.

What would have been an obstruction for the exercise was cleared as a Sagbama High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Tuesday dismissed a petition by Chief Ndutimi Alaibe and Chief Fred Agbedi.

Alaibe, a former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and Agbedi, both of who are PDP governorship aspirants, had asked the court to disqualify the newly-elected local government officials from participating as delegates in the primary election.

The duo had contended that since the elected officials failed to satisfy the 90 day ceiling in the case of local government officials and one month timeframe in the case of ad-hoc delegates in line with the provisions of the PDP Constitution, they were not qualified as delegates for the internal poll.

But the court sacked their petition and said that they lacked the locus to demand the disqualification of the ward and local government ad-hoc delegates elected to participate in the primaries.

In his ruling, Justice E.G. Umukoro held that the court was constraint to dismiss the issue of jurisdiction before considering the substance of the case.

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Among other reasons for the dismissal of the petition, Umukoro said, “It is not the business of the court to dabble into the internal matters of a political party. This court is not invested with the jurisdiction to hear the matter. The only jurisdiction the court has is to strike out the case of the claimants with the cost awarded.”

The Bayelsa governorship election holds on November 16, same day as that of Kogi State.

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