Appeal Court reserves judgement in Bayelsa governorship petition

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday reserved judgement in the appeal against the decision of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.

The three-man panel of justices, led by Justice James Abundaga, reserved judgement after the parties in the petition adopted their written addresses.

The petitioners’ counsel, led by Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, filed an appeal after the tribunal passed judgement in favour of Diri.

Lawyers for the respondents, adopting the written address and presenting arguments, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and for constituting a gross abuse of court process.

On his part, Ikpeazu urged the court to dismiss the objections and validate their submission.

After the presentation of arguments and counter-arguments, Justice Abundaga reserved judgement on the appeals marked: CA/ABJ/EP/GOV/13/2024 and CA/ABJ/GOV/15/2024.

The appellate court, after hearing arguments from the parties, informed the lawyers that they would communicate the date on which the verdict would be delivered to the parties.

Recall that a three-man panel of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye, had dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, and his party for lacking in merit.

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In a unanimous decision, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove any credible evidence to support any of the allegations they raised against the reelection victory of Diri.

It held that the prayers of the petitioners were contradictory, adding that Sylva and APC did not tender any electoral material to show that any irregularity occurred during the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the incumbent governor, Diri, winner of the governorship election in the state.

INEC announced that Diri scored a total of 175,196 votes to emerge the winner, while ex-governor Sylva, the candidate of the APC, came second with 110,108 votes. None of the other 14 candidates scored up to 1,000 votes.

The appellants in the suit are Sylva and his party, APC, while the 1st to 4th respondents in the appeal are the INEC, Senator Douye Diri, Senator Lawrence Oborawharievwo, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)., respectively.