Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has explained how the state’s governorship election petition tribunal, which sat in Abuja, exposed the electoral fraud perpetrated by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, the party’s chairman and a former Commissioner of Police.
The tribunal, on Monday, dismissed the APC and Sylva’s petition, challenging Diri’s declaration as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for lacking in merit.
The governor spoke on Tuesday night at the King of Glory Chapel, in the Government House, Yenagoa, where he stopped for thanksgiving upon his arrival from Abuja.
A crowd of jubilant party members and supporters thronged the state airport and the Government House to welcome the governor.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor as saying that during cross-examination at the tribunal, the APC witnesses shot themselves in the foot with frivolous claims and inconsistent exhibits.
The governor narrated how a former Commissioner of Police in the state, Tolani Alausa, who was procured as a star witness in the case, tainted his image by tendering false evidence before the court and was humiliated for parading fake INEC documents.
He noted that although Alausa was no longer the CP in the state, the senior police officer presented himself at the tribunal to defend the fraud perpetrated by the APC candidate.
Diri also said that the tribunal equally excoriated the APC Chairman in the state, Dennis Otiotio, for his “unprofessional conduct” being a legal practitioner.
He called on the judiciary to place heavy sanctions on frivolous matters and abuse of court processes by those desperate to subvert the wishes of the people.
He said: “During one of the sittings, I physically went to the tribunal, and I saw what transpired. Our party’s Secretary, in the witness box, stated that most of the election materials the APC presented as INEC’s documents before the court were manufactured by Otiotio.”
