Court rules on PDP Bayelsa senatorial primary, affirms Friday-Benson as candidate

A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has upheld Dr. Konbowei Friday-Benson as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP for the Bayelsa Central Senatorial elections.

The serving senator representing Bayelsa Central in the National Assembly, Senator Moses Cleopas had in May lost his bid to return to the Senate for a second term as he lost the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries to Konbowei Benson.

Cleopas, a former state chairman of the PDP scored a paltry 22 votes out of 132 delegates that exercised their franchise.

This was as Benson, the immediate past Secretary to Bayelsa Government and two-term Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, clinched the party ticket with 110 votes.

Cleopas had approached the Onopa division of the Federal High Court to challenge the candidacy of Benson on grounds of submission of false documents.

He had prayed that the court should disqualify him.

However, delivering the judgement on Tuesday, Justice Isa Dachi dismissed the case brought before the court by Sen. Moses Cleopas alleging that Benson submitted false documents.

The court ruled that the suit was lacking in merit.

The court while affirming Konbowei as the authentic candidate of the PDP in the forthcoming 2023 general elections held that the plaintiff, Senator Moses Cleopass, could not prove his certificates forgery allegations against the defendant just as his case was statute barred and abuse of court processes.

Meanwhile, Benson in his reaction to the judgment called on all aggrieved members of the party to close their ranks for the party’s victory next year.