The Supreme Court, Friday, declared that Duoye Diri, remains the authentic governor of Bayelsa State.
The Apex court affirmed the re-election of Diri after dismissing the appeal of the candidate of All Progressive Congress(APC) Timipre Sylva, in the November 11 off-cycle election.
The five-man panel of the supreme court lead by Justice Lawal Garba, affirmed the Court of Appeal decision of 15 July, that declared Sylva’s appeal an abuse of court process for filing two notices of appeal.
Citing a part of section 246(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the Apex Court panel held that the APC Governorship candidate has only one right to appeal the judgment of the Tribunal and not multiple.
Consequently, it faulted the APC appellant who filed two notices of appeal to the Appellate Court.
In a unanimous judgment, the appeal was therefore dismissed by the Supreme Court for lacking merit.
The Electoral body, INEC had declared that governor Diri of the PDP garnered a total of 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva of the APC who polled 110,108 votes.
The unanimous decision of the apex court upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on July 18 in a unanimous judgment affirmed the decision of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the November 11, 2023, re-election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.
A 3-man panel of the appellate court had dismissed an appeal brought before the Court by Timipre Sylva and APC seeking to set aside the decision of the Tribunal.
The Justice Adekunle Adeleye-led three-member tribunal had on May 27, dismissed the petition filed against Governor Diri’s re-election by the APC and its candidate for lacking in merit.
The tribunal had held that both Sylva and APC failed to adduce any credible evidence to substantiate any of the allegations they raised against the outcome of the governorship poll.
