JUST IN: APPEAL COURT AFFIRMS DIRI’S RE-ELECTION AS BAYELSA GOVERNOR

More so, the tribunal dismissed the allegation that the deputy governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, tendered a forged University Degree Certificate and NYSC Exemption Certificate, to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in aid of his qualification to contest the election.

It held that the allegation was a pre-election matter that ought to be litigated before the Federal High Court, adding that the matter had become statute barred since the petitioners failed to challenge the genuineness of the certificates, 14 days after it was submitted to INEC.

Besides, it held that the issue of Ewhrudjakpo’s educational qualification was previously determined by a court of competent jurisdiction.

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 for 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 the prayers of the petitioners were contradictory, adding that Sylva and the APC did not tender any electoral material to show that any irregularity occurred 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.

It will be recalled that INEC 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.

However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Sylva, who served as governor of the state from 2008 to 2012, and the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, approached the tribunal, alleging that the results of the election in three Local Government Areas, LGAs, were wrongly excluded by INEC.

He told the tribunal that whereas elections were held in Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe LGAs, the electoral body voided polling unit results that were forwarded for collation.

Sylva insisted that contrary to INEC’s position that the election did not hold in the affected LGAs, its officials supervised the election and sent results from the various polling units to the collation center.

According to him, had the results from the three LGAs, which he described as his strongholds, been included, he would have won the gubernatorial contest.

Arguing that Governor Diri did not secure the highest number of valid votes cast at the election, Sylva insisted that the election was invalid by reason of non compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.

It was equally his position that Governor Diri and his deputy were not qualified at the time the election was held.

He prayed the tribunal to invalidate the Certificate of Return that was issued to Governor Diri by INEC.

While dismissing the petition, the tribunal declined to set aside the result of the election as announced by INEC.

The tribunal said it was satisfied with evidence from INEC that the election did not hold in the disputed LGAs.

It held that the petitioners did not tender any Voters Register, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machine, or called witnesses to establish that results from the said LGAs were excluded during the collation process.