Watson Alfred Belemote of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), representing Brass Constituency II, Gibson Edwin Munalayefa of the Labour Party(LP) representing Ogbia constituency II and Gabriel Michael Ogbara of African Democratic Congress (ADC) representing Ogbia constituency III, were two months ago declared winners by the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt and issued Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The three aggrieved State Assembly members-elect, in the protest letter addressed to the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the Federal House of Representative, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, warned that though they have resolved to explore various legal and peaceful means to compel the Bayelsa Speaker to administer oath of office on them, the continued failure may result in security breach and breakdown of law and order as their constituents are threatening a mass protest against the injustice meted on them.
The letter written by their solicitor, Jude Rex-Ogbuku, revealed that it has been over two months since the receipt of the certificate of return from INEC and formal presentation of same to the Clerk of the House without any corresponding action. The trio sees no reason for the attempt at denying their constituents the right of representation by the Clerk and Speaker, two months after being duly served with the judgment of the Appeal Court which exercise final jurisdiction on Assembly election matters.
“That while we were kept in the dark, the two Assembly members of the PDP, who won re-run election just on the 5th of March,2016 were sworn in on the 14th of March. Our client position is that there is no reasonable excuse, legally and morally, for the PDP dominated House of Assembly not to have sworn-in the two PDP members with the other three Assembly members-elect.”
“Worse still is that, on the day the two just elected PDP members were sworn in, the three members-elect were in the Assembly complex and met with the clerk of the House, Aaron Timiye who assured them that, since the PDP members were returned, they were to be sworn-in along with them. While we met with the Clerk,the PDP members of the House were with the State Governor. When they came back, the three duly elected State Assembly members were, in a movie-like manner, walked out of the complex by security personnel on the instruction of an Assistant Commissioner of Police(Ops).
“Our client have therefore taken the position that, the only option open to them is to fight for their rights by any legitimate means open to them since the operators of the Government of the day have deliberately and without justification, refused to respect the will of the people and the affirmation of the law.”
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