Supreme Court of Nigeria will on Monday, August 19 begin hearing and final resolutions of electoral disputes that arose in the conduct of governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States in 2023.
At the centre of the disputes are Douye Diri and Ahmed Usman Ododo who were declared winners of the poll for Bayelsa and Kogi respectively by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, last year.
Their challengers are a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and Muritala Yakubu Ajaka of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Social Democratic Party, SDP, respectively who are aggrieved by the declarations made by INEC on the outcome of the elections.
However, the separate Governorship Election Petition Tribunals and the Court of Appeal both of which sat in Abuja in their respective findings affirmed the declaration of the electoral body on various grounds.
Not satisfied with the Tribunal and Court of Appeal decisions, both Sylva and Ajaka are expected to present their grievances before the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on July 18 in a unanimous judgment affirmed the decision of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had upheld the November 11, 2023, re-election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.
A 3-man panel of the appellate court had in the judgment dismissed an appeal brought before the Court by Timipre Sylva and APC seeking to set aside the decision of the Tribunal
