Breaking: Tribunal Nullifies Election of Bayelsa Governor

The Bayelsa state governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja has annulled the election of Duoye Diri, governor of Bayelsa state.

This was consequent upon a petition by Lucky King-George, candidate of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), who had asked the tribunal to nullify the election because he was disqualified from the November 16, 2019 governorship election.

You would recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had disqualified ANDP from the elections because it fielded David Esinkuma as deputy governorship candidate to Lucky King-George.

INEC had alleged that Esinkuma did not meet the age requirement of 35 years to contest in elections, hence the disqualification of ANDP.

ANDP however, hit back at INEC saying they had duly substituted Esinkuma within the allowed time frame, hence INEC’s disqualification was out of place.

The party, therefore, prayed the tribunal to order for a fresh conduct of the poll.

The three-man panel of the tribunal had initially dismissed three petitions challenging the election on the grounds of incompetence and lacking merit.

However, while delivering judgment on another petition, the panel held that the election was unlawful due to the exclusion of ANDP and its candidate.

Yunusa Musa, the judge who delivered the judgement, consequently ordered that INEC should conduct a fresh election in Bayelsa within 90 days.