- Timipre Sylva and the APC challenged the Independent Electoral Commission's (INEC) declaration on the outcome of the 2023 governorship elections in Bayelsa State
- The Supreme Court had reserved judgement on Monday, August 19, in the Bayelsa state governorship election appeal filed by Sylva
- But on Friday, August 23, the apex court struck out Timipre Sylva's suit and declared Douye Diri as the authentic governor of Bayelsa State
The Supreme Court upheld the re-election of Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Governor of Bayelsa State on Friday, August 23.
The court dismissed the appeal brought by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylvia, and his party.
Delivering judgement on Sylva’s appeal, a 5-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Lawal Garba, held that the appeal by Mr Sylvia and APC lacked merit and amounted to a gross abuse of court process. The unanimous decision of the court’s panel upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had, on July 18, affirmed the re-election victory of Governor Diri of Bayelsa State in the November 11, 2023, governorship poll.
The three-member panel of Justices led by James Abundaga held in its unanimous judgement that the appeal filed by the appellants, Mr Sylva and the APC, lacked merit. It also held that the tribunal was not in error when it struck out several paragraphs of the petitioner’s reply against the governor’s election.
NAN reported that the election tribunal had, on May 27, dismissed the petition filed by Mr Sylva and APC. The three-member tribunal, led by Adekunle Adeleye, rejected the petition for lack of merit.
In a unanimous decision, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to adduce credible evidence to substantiate their allegations against the outcome of the state’s governorship poll.
It struck out all the additional proof of evidence and statements on oath of some of the witnesses who testified for the petitioners as incompetent.
According to the tribunal, the law expressly provided that an election petition must be filed no later than 21 days after the election result was declared.
Following Supreme Court ruling, Osun, Enugu, others set date for Local Government elections
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that following the Supreme Court decision prohibiting caretaker committees from handling federal allocations to councils, no fewer than 13 states had scheduled their local government elections.
The seven-member judgment panel led by Justice Emmanuel Agim ruled that the 774 local government councils in the country should handle their funds, adding that it was unconstitutional for state governors to withhold funds allocated to local government councils.