The Court of Appeal in Abuja, comprising a three-judge panel, dismissed the APC’s appeal to annul the Bayelsa governorship election tribunal’s judgement on Thursday.
News About Nigeria reports that this decision affirmed Governor Douye Diri’s re-election victory, solidifying his PDP win.
The court held that it found no reason to set aside the earlier judgement of the tribunal, which refused to nullify the outcome of the governorship poll held in the state on November 11, 2023.
The court dismissed Sylvia’s appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
The appellate court also awarded N500,000 each as a cost in favour of the respondents.
Recall that on November 13, 2023, Diri, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared the winner of the off-cycle election held in Bayelsa after he scored 175,196 votes to defeat Sylva and other candidates.
Sylva, a former minister of state for petroleum resources, polled 110,108 votes.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Sylva and his party filed a petition before the tribunal, alleging that INEC wrongly excluded results from three LGAs—Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe.
He described the three LGAs as his strongholds, arguing that results from the areas would have handed him victory if they were added.
In its decision on May 27, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to adduce credible evidence to substantiate any of the allegations they raised against the outcome of the Bayelsa poll.
The tribunal struck out all the additional evidence as well as the statements on oath of some of the petitioners’ witnesses for being incompetent.
