A breather came the way of the governor of Bayelsa State governor, Mr. Douye Diri on Friday as a five-man panel of the Court of Appeal overturned a ruling of the Bayelsa Election Petition Tribunal which quashed his election.
The panel in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Obande Ogbunya held that the majority judgment of the election petition tribunal erred in law when it ruled that the petition of the Advanced Nigerian Democratic Party (ANDP) was not statute barred.
The court held that the tribunal acted outside its jurisdiction by nullifying Diri’s election.
The panel said the ANDP failed to show that it had a valid candidature that was unlawfully excluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court berated the tribunal for ignoring the fact that the ANDP’s petition was status barred in addition to the fact that the party presented an unqualified candidate to INEC in the November 16, 2019 governorship election in Bayelsa State.
In another ground of appeal, Justice Ogbunya also agreed with the appellant that INEC was right in excluding the ANDP from the November 16, 2019 governorship poll on grounds of disqualification of the ANDP’s deputy governorship candidate, who was said to have been under age at the time of the election.
Overall, Justice Ogbunya held that the appellant’s case had merit and went ahead to set aside the majority judgment of the tribunal that annulled the governorship poll.
It would be recalled that the tribunal nullified Diri’s election in August based on a petition filed by the ANDP which argued that it was unlawfully excluded from participating in the election.
Delivering judgment on Monday, August 17, the panel, led by Justice Yunusa Musa, ruled that the election was unlawful due to the exclusion of ANDP and its candidate.
Justice Musa also ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in Bayelsa within 90 days.
