BAYELSA: Gov Diri Heads To Appeal Court, Says Ready To Challenge Verdict Up To Supreme Court

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has announced his intention to appeal the verdict of the tribunal which nullified his emergence as governor on Monday.

Diri, in a statement by his deputy chief press secretary, Daniel Alabrah, said he had directed his lawyers to begin the process to challenge the verdict.

“We trust in the judiciary and we are appealing the judgement. With God on our side, we will get justice.

“This is a court of first instance and I have instructed our lawyers to file an appeal. We have a right of appeal even up to the Supreme Court,” Alabrah quoted the governor to have said.

Meanwhile, the tribunal’s nullification of Diri’s election followed a petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), Lucky King-George, who had claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wrongly excluded him from the November 16, 2019, election.

Diri, who contested the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had emerged second in the poll.

He was, however, sworn in as governor after the Supreme Court sacked the then governor-elect, David Lyon, on the grounds that his running mate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremieoyo, presented forged certificates to INEC.

Lyon was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.