Appeal Court rules against Sylva, upholds Gov Dickson's election

The Court of Appeal Divi­sion in Abuja, on Thurs­day affirmed the election of Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson.
In a unanimous judgment of a five-man panel presided over by Justice Jimmi Bada, the appellate court resolved all the five issues raised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr Tim-ipre Sylva in favour of Dickson and the Peoples Dem­ocratic Party (PDP).
Justice Bada who delivered the lead decision held that Syl­va and his party failed to prove the allegations of corruption, non-compliance, gross viola­tion of the Electoral Act and other malpractices in the con­duct of the poll.

He said the foundation of the ground upon which the appel­lants predicated their case that the December 6, 2015 election was unilaterally cancelled by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner was eroded having participated actively in the rescheduled election of January 9, 2016.
The court added that it was established beyond doubt that the decision to postpone the December 6, 2015 election to January 9, 2016 was taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission and stake-holders.
Judge further said, the bur­den of proof rested on the ap­pellant who would lose if no adequate evidence was placed before the court to prove his al­legations to the conduct of the election that brought Dickson to office.
“The contention of the ap­pellant has no merit. They were expected to leave evidence to prove their claim that the elec­tion was marred by irregu­larities, electoral malpractices, allocation of votes and gross vi­ola-tion of electoral act. These allegations were not proved by the appellants.
“Am in total agreement with the judgement of the lower Tri­bunal because its decision was based on the evidence placed before it”.
He noted that the Tribunal was right in reaching its con­clusion.
Having resolved all the five issues raised by the appellants in favour of the respondents, Justice Bala dismissed the peti­tion in its entirety for lacking in merit.
It would be recalled that Syl­va and APC had challenged the election of Governor Dickson at the State Governorship Elec­tion Petition Tribunal on the ground that the governor was not lawfully returned through ma-jority votes by INEC.
However, in a unanimous decision, the three-man tri­bunal, led by Justice Kazeem Aloba, the Tribunal held that the APC had failed to prove its case.
It also held that contrary to the position of the petitioner, election took place in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the judgement was delivered, counsel to Sylva. Daniel Nwo­ko said that the judgement of the appeal court will be tested at the Supreme Court because there were aspects of the judge­ment that needed clarification.