A Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, Tuesday affirmed Sen. Douye Diri as the duly elected candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in last year's governship election in Bayelsa.
The court dismissed an application brought before it by a former governorship aspirant in the 2019 elections in Bayelsa State, Chief Timi Alaibe, for lacking in merit.
In a judgement that lasted for two hours, the judge, Justice T.G. Ringim, in a case No. FHC/OW/CS/30/20 struck out most of the reliefs sought by the plaintiff (Alaibe) for failing to prove that the first defendant, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), wrongly nominated the second defendant (Governor Douye Diri) as the validly elected candidate of the party.
Justice Ringim noted that the plaintiff’s application was not status barred because he met the time frame from the primary to the period he challenged the matter, saying: “Every primary election matter should be filed not later than 14 days period after the primary.” He however stated that the case was an internal affair of the party.
He also ruled that the plaintiff was incompetent to urge the first defendant to conduct a fresh primary having conducted the party’s primary on September 3, 2019.
Chief Alaibe had dragged the PDP Douye Diri, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Embeleakpo Alale for himself and representing the elected local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors of the PDP, to court over what he called ‘flawed process’ of the PDP primary.
The court dismissed an application brought before it by a former governorship aspirant in the 2019 elections in Bayelsa State, Chief Timi Alaibe, for lacking in merit.
In a judgement that lasted for two hours, the judge, Justice T.G. Ringim, in a case No. FHC/OW/CS/30/20 struck out most of the reliefs sought by the plaintiff (Alaibe) for failing to prove that the first defendant, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), wrongly nominated the second defendant (Governor Douye Diri) as the validly elected candidate of the party.
Justice Ringim noted that the plaintiff’s application was not status barred because he met the time frame from the primary to the period he challenged the matter, saying: “Every primary election matter should be filed not later than 14 days period after the primary.” He however stated that the case was an internal affair of the party.
He also ruled that the plaintiff was incompetent to urge the first defendant to conduct a fresh primary having conducted the party’s primary on September 3, 2019.
Chief Alaibe had dragged the PDP Douye Diri, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Embeleakpo Alale for himself and representing the elected local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors of the PDP, to court over what he called ‘flawed process’ of the PDP primary.
The suit, filed pursuant to Order 3(9) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, seeks answers to questions bordering on obvious non-adherence to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2010, the PDP constitution and election guidelines by the state chapter of the party in the conduct of the ward congresses, inclusion of local government council officials in the delegates list and the procedure for inclusion of three ad-hoc delegate.
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