Tribunal sacks Douye Diri as Bayelsa gov, orders fresh election

The Bayelsa State Governorship Petition Tribunal has nullified the election that produced Duoye Diri, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as governor of Bayelsa State.

The Tribunal gave the order while ruling on a petition by the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), which argued that it was unlawfully excluded from participating in the election.

The tribunal ruling can, however, still be challenged at the Appeal Court.

This came just two days after the tribunal had earlier dismissed three other petitions against the election of Diri.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had disqualified the ANDP from participating in the election because its deputy governorship candidate was 34 years old as at the time of nomination.

While arguing that it was unlawfully excluded from the election, the ANDP in its petition told Justice Yunusa Musa, who delivered the lead judgment on the matter, that its initial deputy governorship candidate, David Esinkuma was duly substituted by the party within the allowed time frame, following the notification from INEC that he was under-aged.

In his ruling, Justice Musa said that INEC lacked the power to disqualify any candidate.

READ ALSO: Tribunal affirms election of Diri as Bayelsa Gov

Saying that the petition by the ANDP stands, Justice Musa added that only a court had the power to disqualify any candidate for any election.

He further noted that the petition was filed within the 21 days which remained the stipulated time for petitions to be filed.

He tagged the exclusion of ANDP from the Bayelsa governorship election by INEC as illegality.

Nullifying the election, he ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in Bayelsa State within the next 90 days.

He said the electoral body should include the ANDP in the new election.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Muhammad Sirajo, in his minority report, dismissed the petition based on technical grounds.

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