The case challenging the candidature of David Lyon, the Bayelsa State Governor-elect by a former minister of state for agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has been struck out by the court.
Africa Update gathered that the case was struck out by the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
With this judgement, Lyon has now been affirmed as ”the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC”
Justice Isaiah Olefemi who read the judgement said Lokpobiri field out of time as he failed to comply with the statutory 14 days period.
“The matter was filed on September 18, outside the 14 days statutory period. The petition was not filed within time,’’ he said.
Lokpobiri and Lyon are both members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
You will recall that Lokpobiri had gone to court to express his grievance over the process that produced Lyon as the APC governorship candidate. Two days to the November 16,2019 governor election, the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Jane Inyang, had declared that the APC had no candidate
Lokpobiri is insisting that he and not Lyon won the governorship primary election in the state.
He wants the court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to treat him as the lawful candidate of the APC and to accord him the rights, privileges and perquisites of a candidate of the party in the gubernatorial election.
Lyon had scored 42,138 votes to win his closet rival, Diseye Nsirim, who scored 1,533 votes. Others were Heineken Lokpobiri, who scored 571 votes, while Preye Aganaba, scored 354 votes and Amgbare scored 633 votes, while Maureen Etebu scored 564 votes.
Lokpobiri and his lawyers filed their appeal after the judgement.
