Bayelsa guber: Appeal Court upholds Gov Diri, deputy’s election

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Thursday, upheld the election of Douye Diri and Senator Lawrence Oborwahariewo as governor and deputy Governor of Bayelsa state respectively.

The three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice James Abundaga held in a unanimous judgement that, the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was right in dismissing the appeals by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva challenging Diri and Oborwahariewo’s election.

The appellate court held that Sylva and his party failed in their duty to call necessary witnesses to prove their case and that the appellants did not bring BVAS machine, neither did they bring extracts to prove their allegations.

The appellate court explained that there was no cogent proof founded on law to quash the earlier judgement of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and dismissed the appeal by Sylva and his party for been incompetent, abuse of court processes and lacking in merit and upheld the judgement of the Tribunal, which affirmed the election of governor Diri and his deputy.

The court also awarded a cost of N500, 000 in favour of each of the respondents in the appeal to be paid by Sylva and his party.

Reacting to the judgement in Abuja, Governor Diri said, his government will now concentrate on delivering dividends of democracy to the people of Bayelsa state.

“It is a victory for democracy and I will not border myself calling on opposition parties to join me in developing the state since they said, they will be going to the Supreme Court. We will them there”, he said.

It would be recalled that the Tribunal, in its judgment delivered on May 17, 2024, in Abuja, upheld the election of Governor Diri and his deputy and dismissed Sylva and APC’s petition.

The Tribunal’s three-man panel led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye, dismissed Sylva and APC’s petition for lacking in merit.

The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove any credible evidence to back up any of the allegations they raised against the re-election of Diri in the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa state.

The tribunal declared that the prayers of the petitioners were contradictory and further held in the unanimous judgment that Sylva and APC did not tender any electoral material to show any irregularity that occurred during the election as claimed.

Dissatisfied with the decision of the Tribunal, Sylva and his party approached the Court of Appeal with an appeal seeking to set aside the judgement of the Tribunal.

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