By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa state Wednesday received a cheering news as echoes of victory reverberated across Nigeria even as a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court affirmed Douye Diri as the duly elected Governor of Bayelsa State, thus laying to rest the legal dispute over his suitability for his present job.
Prompt News reports that in a unanimous judgement delivered by His Lordship, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the apex court dismissed the six appeals filed against the Governor and his Deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo by his opponents in the last gubernatorial election in Bayelsa state.
Justice Ngwuta, in his lead judgement, predicated the dismissal of the appeals on the withdrawal of the six appeals by lawyers of the appellants.
The appeals dismissed were filed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) and Labour Movement (LM) respectively according to court documents.
Also, Accord Party’s suit against Diri and Ewhrudjakpo was also dismissed.
Diri of the PDP came second in the last year’s governorship election in the state. He was later declared the elected governor of the state in a subsequent Supreme Court judgment disqualifying the All Progressives Congress’s candidate David Lyon who earlier emerged the winner of the poll.
Diri’s victory has been challenged a number of times but the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had at different times also affirmed him as the duly elected governor of the state.
