By Hadiza Suleman
The Supreme Court, Friday, affirmed the re-election of Senator Duoye Diri as the Bayelsa State.
The apex court, made up of a five-member panel, struck out the appeal lodged by Timipre Sylva, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the outcome of the November 11, 2023 governorship election. Sylva is a former governor of the state.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, the Supreme Court ruled that Sylva’s appeal was completely incompetent and an abuse of court process.
The panel therefore upheld the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which earlier dismissed the case for lacking in merit.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the November 11, 2024 governorship poll after he scored a total of 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva, of the APC who polled 110,108 votes.
