Lawyers compile tribunal records as Diri appeals judgment

GOVERNOR Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State, on Tuesday filed 11 grounds of appeal against Monday’s judgment of the state’s governorship election petition tribunal, which sacked him from office.

This is just as Diri’s lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), told our correspondent on Tuesday that that his team had 10 days from Tuesday to compile and transmit the records of the tribunal to the Court of Appeal.

The tribunal sitting in Abuja nullified Diri’s election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh poll within 90 days.

The three-man tribunal, in a split decision of two-to-one, had the majority nullify the November 16, 2019 election as a result of unlawful exclusion of the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party and its candidate, King George, from the exercise.

Two judges on the panel; Justices Yunusa Musa and Sikiru Owoduni, in upholding the petition filed by the ANDP, held that INEC lacked the power to exclude any party from an election.

But the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, in his dissenting judgment, dismissed ANDP’s petition.

Diri, through his lead counsel, Uche on Tuesday, filed a notice of appeal containing 11 grounds at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, contending that the judges, who delivered the tribunal’s majority judgment, erred in law.

He urged the court to set aside the majority judgment and affirm Justice Sirajo’s minority judgment of the tribunal.

The appellant contended among others that the tribunal erred in law when it held that ANDP’s petition was not statute-barred.

According to the appellant, the cause of action arose on November 16, 2019 being the election day from which ANDP claimed to have been excluded and the party had 21 days within which to file their petition, but did not file the petition until more than five months after.

He also argued that the tribunal erred in its majority judgment that ANDP’s candidates for the November 16, 2019 election were validly nominated.

He added that it was erroneous for the tribunal to have held in the majority judgment that ANDP’s case was not a pre-election matter.

He argued that by virtue of section 285(14)(c) of the Constitution, the allegation of disqualification from an election constituted grounds for pre-election and not post-election cases.

The appellant urged the Court of Appeal, to “set aside the entire majority decision of the tribunal (per Hon. Justice Yunsa Musa and Hon. Justice S. M Owodunni) appealed against and to dismiss the 1st respondent’s petition.”

INEC had rejected the deputy governorship candidate of the party,  David Esinkuma, for being 34 years old, falling short of the 35 years stipulated as the constitutional minimum age that must be attained to contest for the office.

Meanwhile, exlaining further on the appeal, Uche said,   “By law, as the appellant, we have 10 days from the date of filing our notice of appeal to transmit the records of appeal, that is, the records of the tribunal, to the Court of Appeal.

He added that the appellant would then have another 10 days from the date of transmission of the records to file the appellant’s brief of arguments, and the respondents, five days from the date of being served to file respondents’ brief of arguments.

“Plus or minus, it will take about one month for the appeal to be ready for hearing,” Uche said.

The Court of Appeal has 60 days from Tuesday when the notice of appeal was filed to hear and deliver judgment on the appeal by Diri.