Diri Files 12 Grounds Of Appeal To Reverse Sack By Tribunal

The Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Duoye Diri, yesterday, lodged 12 grounds of appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge the Tribunal judgement that sacked him from office and ordered the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct a fresh election in the state within 90 days.
In the Notice of Appeal he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, yesterday, Diri, urged the appellate court to set aside the majority judgement of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which nullified his election and uphold the minority verdict.
The tribunal had in a majority judgement by two out of the three-man panel of Justices, voided the outcome of the gubernatorial election that held in the state on November 16, 2019, over the exclusion of one of the registered political parties, Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), in the contest.
Two members of the panel, Justices Sikiru Owodunni and Yunusa Musa, said they found merit in ANDP’s contention that it was unlawfully excluded from participating in the governorship election by INEC, despite the fact that it fulfilled all the statutory requirements.
Justice Musa, who read the lead judgement in the matter, upheld the petition, saying the tribunal was satisfied that INEC illegally excluded ANDP and its governorship candidate, King George, from the election.
He held that INEC lacked the powers to disqualify ANDP’s candidates after it failed to act on a letter the party wrote to be allowed to substitute its deputy governorship candidate.
However, in a dissenting judgement, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, affirmed Diri’s election after he dismissed the petition for being statute-barred.
Justice Sirajo said there was evidence that ANDP was disqualified from the election for fielding an ineligible candidate.
He noted that the party nominated an under-aged deputy governorship candidate, who admitted that he was 34 years old, instead of the 35 years age bracket the Constitution stipulated.
Justice Sirajo said there was equally evidence that the party failed to substitute the candidate till the statutory window for such substitution elapsed.
Meanwhile, in his appeal, a copy of which was made available to newsmen, last night, Diri, prayed the appellate court to set aside the entire majority decision of the Tribunal (per Hon. Justice Yunusa Musa and Hon. Justice S. M. Owodunni) and to dismiss the 1st Respondent’s petition.
He further urged the Court of Appeal to, “uphold the minority judgement of the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, Hon. Justice Muhammad I. Sirajo, which clearly appreciated the law and correctly applied the same to the facts and rightly dismissed the petition.”
Listing some of the particulars of error in the judgement against him, Diri, maintained that the petition by ANDP challenged its alleged unlawful exclusion from the election that was conducted on November 16, 2019.
He argued that the cause of action of the 1st Respondent, ANDP, crystallized on November 16, 2019, is the Election Day when it claimed to have realized that INEC indeed did not place it on the ballot.
“From the date, the 1st Respondent had 21 days within which to file a petition against the alleged unlawful exclusion from the election.
“There was no election on the 14th day of February, 2020 held by INEC to ground the 1st Respondent’s petition filed on 26th February, 2020, more than five months after the declaration of results, as the ground of complaint of unlawful exclusion is a complaint against an election, not a declaration.
“The case of the 1st Respondent is not hinged on the nullification of the votes of APC candidate, David Lyon, nor on the declaration of results by the 2nd Respondent on the 14th day of February, 2020; nor on the return of the Appellant as the Governor of Bayelsa State, but on its alleged unlawful exclusion from the election held on the 16th day of November, 2019.