The Supreme Court Thursday nullified the election of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of Bayelsa State and declared the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election held on November 16, 2019.
The Court ordered the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to APC’s David Lyon and his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, as the governor-elect and deputy governor-elect of Bayelsa State in the polls.
Nigeria’s highest Court also ordered that the candidate of the party that scored the second-highest number of votes in the November 16, 2019 gubernatorial polls should be sown in as governor of the State.
Available figures indicate that while Lyon scored 352,552 votes, PDP’s Duoye Diri came second wth 143,172 votes.
The swearing-in of the governor of Bayelsa is scheduled to hold Friday, February 14, 2020.
The decision of the Supreme Court was based on the fact that Degi-Eremienyo, submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forged certificates for the governorship election, the Court said.
The seven-member committee of the Supreme Court chaired by Mary Odili held that once a candidate submits a forged certificate for an election, he is deemed not to have contested in the election at all, hence its decision to award the certificate of return to the party with the second-highest number of votes.
