BAYELSA POLLS: TRIBUNAL UPHOLDS DIRI'S RE-ELECTION, DISMISSES SYLVA'S PETITION

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Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State was re-elected, according to the ruling of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

The petition filed by Timipre Sylva, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the panel of three judges was denied. Justice Adekunle Adeleye presided over the panel.

The panel determined unanimously that the petitioners had not produced any reliable evidence to support any of the claims they had made regarding the results of the Bayelsa state gubernatorial election.

All of the supporting documentation was rejected as inadmissible, and several of the petitioners’ witnesses’ sworn declarations were also rejected.

The tribunal claimed that the statute clearly stipulated that an election petition had to be submitted no later than 21 days following the announcement of the election’s outcome.

It was decided that all planned witnesses’ written statements had to be included with the petition at the time it was submitted.

The tribunal determined that Sylva and his party’s choice to submit their supplementary evidence and statement of witnesses under oath so late after filing the petition amounted to a covert attempt to modify the petitioners’ position.

Furthermore, the tribunal rejected the claim that Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the deputy governor, falsified his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate and university degree certificate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in order to be eligible to run for office.

The Federal High Court should hear the pre-election case, the court decided, adding that the petitioners’ failure to contest the authenticity of the certificates within 14 days of their submission to INEC rendered the case statute barred.

It further held that a court with appropriate jurisdiction had already made a determination about Ewhrudjakpo’s educational qualifications.

The tribunal said it took judicial notice of the fact that the third respondent, Ewhrudjakpo, is a legal practitioner, saying it was satisfied that he was eminently qualified to contest the election.

Likewise, the tribunal noted that whereas Sylva and his party prayed it to declare that they were the valid winners of the governorship election, they equally applied for the same election to be declared invalid.

It held that prayers of the petitioners were contradictory, adding that Sylva and APC did not tender any electoral material to show that any irregularity occured during the election.

It held that the petitioners were unable to discharge the burden of proof that was placed on them by the law, stressing that they failed to show, polling units by polling units, the particulars of the non compliance they alleged and how it substantially affected the outcome of the election.

The tribunal Chairman, Justice Adeleye, who read the lead judgement, further held that some of the allegations in the petition contained elements of criminality that ought to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The tribunal upheld preliminary objections the respondents filed to challenge the competence of the election.