The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) gubernatorial aspirant in Bayelsa State, Ndutimi Alaibe, in a move to unseat Governor Douye Diri.
Mr Alaibe had besought the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the declaration of Diri as the winner of the governorship primary of the party held on September 3, 2019, for lacking in merit.
The former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), argued, among others, that the PDP committed electoral and constitutional illegality by allowing local government chairmen, councillors and those he called ineligible persons to vote during the party’s governorship primary in violation of the party’s guidelines.
The PDP stalwart had argued that the party’s guidelines did not permit chairmen and councillors
However, a five-man panel of the apex court, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, on Tuesday held that the appeal was without merit.
The court’s panel also identified some other defects in the appeal and concluded that it did not fall within the purview of a pre-election matter but an internal affair of a political party, which it has no jurisdiction to entertain.
