The Supreme Court has dismissed Timi Alaibe’s appeal challenging the candidacy of Duoye Diri as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 2019 election in Bayelsa State.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour dismissed the appeal following withdrawal.
Mr Alaibe’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe, withdrew the appeal after the panel members pointed his attention to the fact that the issues raised in the appeal were not about the primary election but about an internal affair of the party.
Alaibe had lost the suit at both the Federal High Court in Owerri and the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt.
In the suit, the former managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) challenged the participation of two delegates who voted in the primary that produced Diri as the party’s candidate.
In the preliminary inquiry preceding the hearing on Tuesday, the Justice Rhodes-Vivour panel informed Adedipe that his case could not be categorised as a pre-election case that a court could entertain but about an internal affair of the party which the court lacked jurisdiction to hear.
