Tribunal upholds Dickson election as Bayelsa gov

(Nigeria) Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Tuesday, upheld the election of Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the duly elected governor in the re-run governorship election in the state.

The tribunal, which sat the Court of Appeal headquarters in Abuja, dismissed petition by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate in the election, Timipre Sylva against Dickson.

The Justice Kazeem Alogba headed panel, held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegation that the election was marred by irregularities, saying that APC and Sylva were unable to prove their allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

Justice Alogba, said, "The petitioners failed to prove that the second respondent (Dickson) did not score the highest lawful votes. Therefore, the return of the second respondent by the Independent National Electoral Commission on January 10, 2016 was valid."

APC and Sylva had in their petitions, challenged the declaration of Dickson as winner of both the December 5, 2015 and January 9, 2016, supplementary poll, by  Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The petitioners also argued that the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state lacked the power to unilaterally cancel the supplementary election scheduled in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area for December 6, 2015 and rescheduled it to January 9, 2016.

But the tribunal held that INEC had the power to cancel the scheduled supplementary election, adding that contrary to contention by the petitioners,  the decision to cancel the December 6, 2015, poll was not unilaterally taken by the REC, but was taken by INEC and "merely announced by the REC."

The tribunal said, "We have come to the conclusion that the election scheduled for December 6, 2015, was inconclusive.  Therefore, the rescheduling of the election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area to January 9, 2016 was proper and valid.

"We have come to the conclusion that the supplementary election on January 9, 2016 was validly and properly conducted by INEC, and only for the sake of emphasis, the contention of the petitioners that the supplementary election did not hold on January 9, has become unmeritorious," Justice Alogba said.