Recall that in August, the tribunal court had annulled Diri’s election, over the exclusion of Lucky King-George, candidate of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) from the November 16, 2019 poll, oyogist.com reports.
While the three-man panel of the tribunal had dismissed three petition challenging the election on the grounds of incompetence and lacking merit, on the other hand the panel directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh exercise within 90 days, for excluding the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) from participating in the November poll.
However, sequel to the appeal filed by the People’s Democratic Party PDP candidate, Diri, a five-man panel of the Appellate Court has overturned a ruling which nullified the election of Douye Diri as governor of Bayelsa State.
According to ChannelsTV, the court held that the Bayelsa Election Petition Tribunal acted outside its jurisdiction by nullifying the election of Governor Diri.
In a unanimous judgment, the five-man panel of the court said the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party failed woefully to show that it had a valid candidate that was unlawfully excluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court berated the tribunal for ignoring the fact that the petition of ANDP 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.
Consequently, there is a wild jubilation ongoing in Bayelsa state at the moment, over the victory achieved by the state Governor over the Tribunal’s judgment.
