The panel held that the tribunal didn’t err when it struck out several paragraphs of the petitioner’s reply against Diri’s re-election.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the re-election of Douye Diri as governor of Bayelsa State, dismissing the case of Timipre Sylva and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the process.
A three-member panel of justices led by James Abundaga gave the unanimous judgment on Thursday.
The panel held that the tribunal was not in error when it struck out several paragraphs of the petitioner’s reply against Diri’s re-election.
Abundaga said the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Tribunal, which sat in Abuja, was right to have struck out the appellants’ witnesses’ statements on oath.
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The judge said it was an abuse of court process for a party to file several processes against the same judgement.
The judge added that the appellants failed to show that they tendered the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines before the tribunal as evidence to prove the allegations of electoral malpractice.
“The evidence of the appellants’ witnesses was hearsay and could not be relied upon by any reasonable tribunal,” the court said.
The panel subsequently dismissed the appeal for being unmeritorious.
It awarded a cost of N500,000 against Sylvia and his party, the APC.