Governor, Douye Diri, at the INEC headquarters in Abuja on February
14, 2020. Photo: Channels TV/ Sodiq Adelakun.
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has appealed the
judgement which nullified his election as the governor of the
state.
The governor’s lawyers filed the Notice of Appeal on Tuesday at
the Court of Appeal in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He is challenging the majority judgement of the Bayelsa State
Governorship Election Tribunal which nullified his election on 12
grounds.
The Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) are listed as first, second, and third respondents in
the appeal.
Governor Diri disagreed with the entire majority decision of the
Tribunal as delivered by Justice Yunusa Musa and Justice Sikiru
Owodunni.
He argued that the petition by the ANDP challenged its alleged
unlawful exclusion from the election that was conducted on November
16, 2019.
The governor added that the cause of action of the first
respondent crystallised on November 16, 2019, the Election Day when
it claimed to have realised that INEC indeed did not place it on
the ballot.
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Governorship Election, Diri To Appeal Ruling
Appeal in Abuja.
“From the date, the 1st Respondent had 21 days within which to
file a petition against the alleged unlawful exclusion from the
election.
“There was no election on the 14th day of February 2020 held by
INEC to warrant the 1st Respondent’s petition filed on 26th
February 2020, more than five months after the declaration of
results, as the ground of complaint of unlawful exclusion is a
complaint against an election, not a declaration,” he said.
According to Governor Diri, the case of ANDP is not hinged on
the nullification of the votes of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) candidate, David Lyon, nor on the declaration of results by
INEC on February 14, nor on his return as the governor of Bayelsa
State.
He insists that it was hinged on the ANDP’s alleged unlawful
exclusion from the election, stressing that the first respondent’s
petition was statute-barred and in breach of the provisions of
Section 285(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
The governor, therefore, urged the appellate court to set aside
the entire majority decision of the Tribunal, as well as dismiss
the petition by the first respondent.
He also asked the court to uphold the minority judgement of the
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Muhammad Sirajo.
Governor Diri believes Justice Sirajo appreciates the law and
correctly applies the same to the facts and rightly dismissed the
petition of ANDP.