Bayelsa Governorship: Diri Files 12 Grounds Of Appeal Against Ruling
Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa state, on Tuesday, filed 12 grounds of appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge the tribunal judgement that sacked him from office and ordered the Independence National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh election in the state within 90 days.
In the notice of appeal he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, Governor Diri urged the appellate court to set aside the majority judgement of the Bayelsa state governorship election petitions tribunal, which nullified his election and uphold the minority verdict.
The tribunal had, in a majority judgement by two out of the three-man panel of justices, voided the outcome of the gubernatorial election that held in the state on November 16, 2019, over the exclusion of one of the registered political parties, Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party, ANDP, in the contest.
Two members of the panel, Justices Sikiru Owodunni and Yunusa Musa, said they found merit in ANDP’s contention that it was unlawfully excluded from participating in the governorship election by INEC, despite the fact that it fulfilled all the statutory requirements.
Justice Musa, who read the lead judgement in the matter, upheld the petition, saying the tribunal was satisfied that INEC illegally excluded ANDP and its governorship candidate, King George, from the election. He held that INEC lacked the powers to disqualify ANDP’s candidates after it failed to act on a letter the party wrote to be allowed to substitute its deputy governorship candidate.
However, in a dissenting judgement, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, affirmed governor Diri’s election after he dismissed the petition for being statute-barred. Justice Sirajo said there was evidence that ANDP was disqualified from the election for fielding an ineligible candidate.
He noted that the party nominated an underaged deputy governorship candidate, who admitted that he was 34 years old, instead of the 35 years age bracket the constitution stipulated.
Justice Sirajo said there was equally evidence that the party failed to substitute the candidate till the statutory window for such substitution elapsed.
Meanwhile, in his appeal, a copy of which was sighted by Orient Weekend, Governor Diri prayed the appellate court to set aside the entire majority decision of the tribunal (per Hon. Justice Yunusa Musa and Hon. Justice S. M. Owodunni) and to dismiss the 1st respondent’s petition.
He further urged the Court of Appeal to, “uphold the minority judgement of the chairman of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, Hon. Justice Muhammad I. Sirajo, which clearly appreciated the law and correctly applied the same to the facts and rightly dismissed the petition.”
Listing some of the particulars of error in the judgement against him, Governor Diri maintained that the petition by ANDP challenged its alleged unlawful exclusion from the election that was conducted on November 16, 2019.
He argued that the cause of action of the 1st respondent, ANDP, crystallised on November 16, 2019, the election day, when it claimed to have realised that INEC, indeed, did not place it on the ballot.
In his second ground of appeal, Governor Diri argued that Justices Musa and Owodunni erred in law when they held that ANDP’s candidates were validly nominated. On particulars of errors, he told the appellate court that ANDP forwarded names of underaged candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He contended that the two justices, in the majority judgement, erred in law when they held that INEC unlawfully excluded ANDP’s candidates.
Governor Diri argued that the majority judgement was legally defective as it held that ANDP had the locus standi to maintain its petition, adding that it was wrong for the tribunal to hold that the complaint the party canvassed in its petition was not a pre-election matter.
https://orientdailynews.com/po....litics/bayelsa-gover
