The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday upheld the election of governor Duoye Diri, and upturned the August 17, 2020 verdict of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had sacked him from office and ordered a fresh poll to be conducted within 90 days.
The decision was taken by a five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Adezila Mshelia.
On August 17 this year, a three-man Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja in a decision of two-to-one, nullified the November 16, 2019 Bayelsa State governorship election result, based on the unlawful exclusion of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party and its candidate, King George, from the exercise.
Irked by the judgment, Diri, the People’s Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, filed appeals against it.
The Court of Appeal upheld the appeals, declaring that ANDP was not unlawfully excluded from the election.
In a unanimous judgment, the panel of the Court said the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party failed woefully to show that it had a valid candidate that was unlawfully excluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court declared that the Bayelsa Election Petition Tribunal went beyond its jurisdiction by nullifying the election of Governor Diri.
The court scolded the tribunal for ignoring the fact that the petition of ANDP was status-barred, besides the fact that the party presented an unqualified candidate to INEC for the November 16, 2019 Governorship election in Bayelsa State.
