The Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, has reserved judgment in a petition filed by the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Timiprye Sylvia, against the declaration of Douye Diri as the Governor of Bayelsa State.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Adekunle Adeleye announced that the judgment will be delivered within 180 days statutorily allowed by law.
At today’s proceedings, the petitioners, Mr Sylvia and APC adopted their final written address praying to the tribunal to annul the declaration of Governor Diri as the winner of the election.
Their lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, told the tribunal that INEC embarked on the wrongful exclusion of results before arriving at the wrongful declaration of Mr Diri as the winner.
He therefore urged the tribunal to objectively decide the petition on the strength of the evidence adduced by the petitioners especially because INEC did not call a single witness to challenge all the allegations.
However, counsel to Governor Douye Diri, Chris Uche, informed the tribunal that the petition by Mr Sylvia died on arrival because it was grossly deficient in quantity and quality of evidence.
Among others, Mr Uche said that Sylva predicated his petition on alleged refusal to collate results in three local government areas- southern Ijaw, Nembe and Ogbia but failed to call a single collation officer to back up its claim
Similarly, INEC and the PDP canvassed for dismissal of the petition on the ground that the two petitioners failed and neglected to discharge the burden of establishing their allegations against the election beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
