The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, upheld the July 26 verdict of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the bona fide winner of the gubernatorial contest.
Recall that the three-man panel of the state Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja unanimously upheld the victory of Dickson in the December 5, 2016 governorship poll, noting that the APC failed woefully to prove its case. The tribunal, led by Justice Kazeem Aloba, consequently dismissed Sylva’s petition and upheld Dickson’s election as earlier declared by INEC. In an unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of Justices, the Appeal Court dismissed the joint appeal which was lodged by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate inthe state, Timipre Sylva, against Dickson, noting that the appeal lacked merit. The appellate court panel led by Justice Rotimi Olukayode Bada, held that: “where a party seeks declarative reliefs, the burden is on him to win on the strength of his own case and not on the weakness of the defence.” Noting that neither Sylva nor APC was able to discharge the burden of proof imposed on them by the law, the court said the appellants failed to prove that there was substantial none compliance to section 139(1) of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the Bayelsa State governorship poll.

http://dailypost.ng/2016/09/22/bayelsa-appeal-court-throws-sylva-apcs-appeal-dicksons-election/

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