BY ANTHONY OCHELA, ABUJA
Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja yesterday reserved judgment in appeal against the decision of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.
The three man panel of justices led by Justice James Abundaga reserved the judgment after parties in the petition adopted their written briefs.
The petitioner’s counsel led by Onyechi Ikpeazu had filed an Appeal after the tribunal passed judgment in favour of Diri.
Lawyers for the respondents, after adopting their written addresses and presentations, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit and for constituting gross abuse of court process.
On his part, Ikpeazu urged the court to dismiss the objections and validate their submission.
After the presentation of arguments and counter arguments, Justice Abundaga reserved judgment on both appeals marked: CA/ABJ/EP/GOV/13/2024 CA/ABJ/GOV/15/2024.
The appellate court after taking of arguments from the parties informed the lawyers that they would communicate the date the verdict would be delivered to parties.
Recall a three-man panel of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Adekunle Adeleye had dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress ,APC, Timipre Sylva, and this party for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous decision, 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 victory of Diri.
It held that the prayers of the petitioners were contradictory, adding that Sylva and APC did not tender any electoral material to show that any irregularity occurred during the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission ,INEC, had declared incumbent governor Diri winner of the governorship election in the state.
INEC announced that Diri scored a total of 175,196 votes to emerge the winner while ex-governor Timipre Sylva, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress ,APC, came second with 110,108 votes.
None of the other 14 candidates scored up to 1,000 votes.
