The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Bayelsa State, Timi Alaibe, against governor Douye Diri.
He had filed an appeal at the supreme court to contest Mr Diri ‘s emergence as the candidate for PDP in last year’s election.
Mr Alaibe, who was a governorship aspirant of the PDP in the 2019 election, had instituted a suit against the party, Mr Diri and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Federal High Court in Owerri.
He had been seeking to cancel the primary election result on the grounds of procedural flaws.
On 10 March, Federal High Court Justice Tijjani Ringim in Owerri dismissed Mr Alaibe’s claim for lack of substance.
The Court of Appeal ‘s Port Harcourt Division on May 12 also dismissed Mr Alaibe ‘s appeal, and upheld the trial court’s judgment.
Unhappy with the decision of the appeals trial, Mr Alaibe had approached the Supreme Court.
But at the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, informed the appellant ‘s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe, that his case can not be categorised as a pre-election matter but “a domestic affair of the party which the court lacked jurisdiction to hear.”
The appeal was also described as statute-barred.
Despite this, Mr Adedipe agreed to withdraw the appeal and was subsequently rejected by the supreme court.
Mr Diri and his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrujakporboth, had taken the oath of office in Yenagoa, after he (Mr Diri) was on Febrary 13, declared winner of the November 16 governorship election.
This followed the annulment by the Supreme Court of the victory of the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, David Lyon.
Mr Lyon was dismissed by a five-member supreme court tribunal headed by Justice Mary Odili on the grounds that his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, submitted misleading information to INEC.
Consequently the supreme court in Ejembi Eko ‘s judgment ordered INEC to revoke the return certificate given to Messrs Lyon and Degi-Eremienyo.
The judge also ordered INEC to declare the party with the highest number of lawful votes and geographic spread forthwith.
On February 14, the INEC president, Mahmood Yakubu, officially declared Mr Diri the poll winner. He said the decision had been in line with the judgment of the supreme court.
The INEC commissioner for the South-South, May Agbamuche, subsequently presented Mr Diri and his deputy with the return certificate.
