The Supreme Court has affirmed the re-election of Senator Duoye Diri as Bayelsa State Governor.
A five-member panel of the apex court struck out the appeal lodged by Timipre Sylva, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the outcome of the November 11, 2023 governorship election.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, the Supreme Court ruled that Sylva’s appeal was completely incompetent and an abuse of court process.
The panel however, upheld the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which earlier dismissed the case for lacking in merit.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the November 11, 2024 governorship poll after he scored a total of 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva of the APC who polled 110,108 votes.
