Bayelsa election: Supreme court dismisses Alaibe’s suit against Diri

The supreme court has affirmed Duoye Diri as the winner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election in Bayelsa state.

Delivering judgment on Tuesday, the five-man panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by Ndutimi Alaibe.

Alaibe, who was a governorship aspirant of the PDP in the 2019 election, had instituted a suit against the party, Diri and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the federal high court in Owerri.

Alaibe sought cancellation of the result of the primary election on grounds of procedural flaws.

On March 10, Tijjani Ringim, a high court judge, in his judgment, dismissed Alaibe’s suit for lacking merit.

The court of appeal on May 12, also dismissed Alaibe’s appeal and upheld the judgment of the trial court.

Aggrieved, the appellant went further to the supreme court.

Bode Rhodes-Vivour who chaired panel of justices informed Ifedayo Adedipe, counsel to Alaibe, that his case cannot be categorised as a pre-election matter but about a domestic affair of the party which the court lacked jurisdiction to hear.

The suit was also described as statute-barred.

Adedipe decided to withdraw the appeal and consequently, the court dismissed it.