BREAKING: Supreme Court Upholds Diri’s Election As Bayelsa Governor
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed six appeals filed against the election of Douye Diri of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Bayelsa State.
A seven man panel of the court led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, in its first decision, dismissed the appeal by the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) following its withdrawal by the appellant.
The court noted that the appellant’s claim of wrongful disqualification of its candidate by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrongly made because the said candidate did not meet the constitutional age requirement in the first place.
The other appeals dismissed on Wednesday are Alliance for Democracy (AD), Liberation Movement (LM) and Accord Party (AP).
Diri who contested under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second in the last year’s governorship election in the state.
He was later declared Governor of the state in a subsequent Supreme Court judgement disqualifying the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, David Lyon, who had emerged the winner of the poll.
Diri’s victory has been challenged a number of times, but the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had at different times also affirmed him as the duly elected governor of the state.
