SUPREME COURT ANNULS APC BAYELSA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION WIN, DECLARES PDP WINNER

The election of Bayelsa State governor-elect, David Lyon, and his running mate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, was on Thursday annulled by The Supreme Court, and the candidate from the opposition party People's Democratic Party (PDP) declared winner.

The shocking news came on Thursday when a five-man panel, led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the All Progressives Congress’ candidates who had earlier been declared winners of the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the state.

The court ordered INEC to issue fresh certificates to the candidates of the party with the next highest votes and with the required constitutional spread of votes in the results of the election, which are the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidates.

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Degi-Eremienyo was disqualified in the election for submitting forged certificates to INEC. Justice Ejembi Ekwo noted that educational qualifications in the Form CF001 that Degi-Eremienyo submitted to INEC as a candidate appeared to be fraudulent, and pointed out the different names the candidate used on different certificates. He ruled that Degi-Eremienyo’s disqualification on the basis of submitting false information to INEC had infected the joint ticket with which he and Lyon contested the election.

In his words, “In sum total, the joint ticket of the first and second respondents (Lyon and Degi-Eremienyo) sponsored by the 3rd respondent, APC, was vitiated by the disqualification of the first respondent (Degi-Eremienyo).

The governorship and deputy governorship candidates of PDP had on December 2019 filed an appeal that accused Degi-Eremienyo of presenting to INEC, documents of academic qualifications with about nine variations of names different from the name that appeared on his Form CF001 submitted to the electoral commission.

The names on the different documents attached to his Form CF001 were Biobarakum Degi-Eremienyo, Degi Biobaragha, Degi Biobarakuma, Adegi Biobakunmo, Degi-Eremienyo Wangagha.

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The Federal High Court ruled that there was no evidence to show that the documents with different names belonged to Degi-Eremienyo. Upholding the finding on Thursday, the Supreme court ruled that the affidavits of correction of names and regularisation of names filed by Degi-Eremienyo were not enough and he should have followed the laid down legal procedures.