The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday affirmed the re-election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.
In a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justices, the appellate court dismissed an appeal brought by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva. The court held that the appeal was incompetent and constituted an abuse of the court process.
The appellate court found no reason to overturn the earlier judgment of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had declined to nullify the gubernatorial poll held on November 11, 2023.
The tribunal, led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye, dismissed the petition filed against Governor Diri’s re-election as lacking merit on May 27.
In its ruling, the tribunal noted that the petitioners, the APC and Sylva, failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate their allegations against the election’s outcome.
The tribunal struck out as incompetent all additional proofs of evidence and statements on oath from some of the petitioners’ witnesses.
The tribunal emphasized that an election petition must be filed within 21 days after the result is declared and accompanied by written statements of all intended witnesses at the time of filing. The tribunal viewed the petitioners’ attempt to file additional proof of evidence and statements on oath of witnesses long after filing the petition as a surreptitious amendment of their case.
Regarding the allegations against Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the tribunal dismissed claims that he presented forged certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The tribunal held that this issue was a pre-election matter and had become statute-barred since the petitioners failed to challenge the certificates’ genuineness within the legally stipulated period.
The tribunal upheld Ewhrudjakpo’s qualifications, noting he is a legal practitioner and was eminently qualified to contest the election.
Furthermore, the tribunal dismissed the petitioners’ contradictory prayers to declare them the winners of the election while also seeking to invalidate it.
The tribunal criticized Sylva and the APC for not providing any electoral material to show irregularities during the election, stressing that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations polling unit by polling unit.
INEC had declared Governor Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election with 175,196 votes, defeating Sylva of the APC, who garnered 110,108 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Sylva approached the tribunal, alleging that results from three local government areas (LGAs) were wrongly excluded by INEC. Sylva claimed that results from Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, and Nembe LGAs, his strongholds, would have secured his victory if included.
The tribunal, however, was satisfied with INEC’s evidence that elections did not hold in the disputed LGAs, and the petitioners failed to present any evidence to the contrary.