Supreme Court affirms Governor David Lyon’s candidacy, election

The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed David Lyon as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), under whose platform he emerged victorious in the last election in Bayelsa State.

In a unanimous decision, the Court affirmed the nomination of Lyon as the candidate of his party.

The apex court consequently struck out an appeal by former Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri challenging the emergence of Lyon as APC’s governorship candidate.

The five-man panel of the apex court affirmed the ruling of the Appeal Court which ruled that Lokpobiri’s appeal against the outcome of the September 4, 2019 primary of the APC was filed out of the time allowed by law.

Reading the judgment, Justice Inyang Okoro ruled that section 285 subsection 9 of the 1999 constitution as amended does not admit any elongation of time when it comes to pre-election matters.

He held: “Any party seeking redress must file within the 14 days period.”

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