Bayelsa 2019 Guber Primaries: Again, Diri Floors Alaibe, As Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by former managing Director of the NDDC and governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 Bayelsa State Governorship primaries, Chief Ndutimi Alaibe, challenging the emergence of Governor Duoye Diri as the party’s standard bearer.

A panel constituted of Five Justices of the apex court headed by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour stroke-out the appeal.

Alaibe’s  counsel, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, withdrew the appeal after the panel members pointed his attention to the fact that the issues raised in the appeal were not about the primary election but about an internal affair of the party.

Alaibe, who had lost the suit at both the Federal High Court in Owerri and the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, had in the suit challenged the participation of two delegates who voted in the primary that produced Diri as the party’s Governorship flag bearer.

Meanwhile in the preliminary inquiry preceding the hearing on Tuesday, the Justice Rhodes-Vivour panel informed Adedipe that his case could not be categorised as a pre-election case that a court could entertain but about an internal affair of the party which the court lacks jurisdiction to hear, this The Tide learnt made Adedipe to withdrew the suit and was struck out by the court.

By Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa.