Supreme Court upheld Douye Diri election as Bayelsa governor

By Ebi Perekeme 

Following an appeal filed by Mr. Timi Alaibe, the governorship aspirant for the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State, challenging the emergence of Governor Douye Diri as the party’s candidate in the 2019 election, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal.

A five-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour dismissed the appeal.

Alaibe’s lawyer, 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 candidate.

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 lacked jurisdiction to hear.

Adedipe then withdrew the suit and was struck out by the court.

More details later…