The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed Duoye Diri of the People’s Democratic Party as governor of Bayelsa State. This follows the dismissal of an appeal by Timipre Sylva, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who is challenging the election of Duoye Diri in the off-cycle election held last November.
It dismissed the appeal of Sylva for being an abuse of Court process and for lacking merit. The basis for arriving at this decision is that the APC governorship candidate filed two appeals in relation to one judgment.
The two appeals are those challenging the decision of the Tribunal that the petition by the APC and its candidate was abandoned and the second is that against the judgment of the Tribunal dismissing the petition on the election outcome.
Despite dismissing the appeal, the Appellate Court further held that the APC governorship candidate failed to prove his case that the non-collation of results in 184 polling units in Nembe, Ogbia and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas impacted the final outcome of the election, leading to his defeat.
It held that the failure of a key witness of the APC to tender the BVAS machine along with the voter register at the Tribunal to prove that election held at the three contested Local Government Areas failed to give life to Sylva’s case.
The court reminded parties in the matter that the Electoral Act demands that valid accreditation of voters can only be done by the use of the BVAS machine. To prove that the election was held or not, the court said, polling unit by polling unit results will be required.
“Any election without proper accreditation of voters,” the Appellate Court adds, “can only produce unlawful results.”
The court said Mr Sylva and the APC failed to prove their claim of electoral malpractices, and how they affected the outcome of the poll. They were deemed as having failed to discharge the burden of proof.
Duoye Diri emerged winner with a total of 175,196 votes to beat Timipre Sylva with 110,108 votes in the Bayelsa State off-cycle Governorship election held 11 November 2023.
