Senator Douye Diri, the governor of Bayelsa State, has stated that the electoral fraud committed by Chief Timipre Sylva, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a current commissioner of police, was revealed by the state’s governorship election petition tribunal on November 11, 2023.
Remember that the tribunal on Monday rejected the APC and Sylva’s plea, citing lack of merit, contesting the INEC’s declaration of Governor Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the election’s victor.
On Tuesday evening, Diri gave a speech at the King of Glory Chapel in Government House, Yenagoa, where he had stopped on his way from Abuja to express gratitude.
He revealed that the APC witnesses shot themselves in the foot with baseless allegations and contradictory materials during the tribunal’s cross-examination.
The governor also described how Mr. Tolani Alausa, the state’s former commissioner of police, damaged his reputation by providing false testimony in court and was humiliated for displaying forged INEC documents. Mr. Alausa was called as a star witness in the case.
He pointed out that even though Alausa was no longer the state’s chief prosecutor, the senior police officer showed up at the tribunal to support the APC candidate’s fraud.
He also said the tribunal equally excoriated the party’s chairman in the state, Chief Dennis Otiotio, for his “unprofessional conduct” being a legal practitioner.
He urged the judiciary to impose severe penalties on pointless cases and the misuse of legal procedures by individuals who are fervently trying to overturn popular will.
He said: “During one of the sittings, our lawyers scanned an INEC form that they (APC) presented and it was established that the form was printed in Yenagoa. The counsel to INEC in his own cross-examination of Otiotio and their party’s witnesses said all INEC result sheets had barcodes but that presented as result sheets by the APC had none.
“We also witnessed how a Commissioner of Police made himself an APC commissioner in the state. This was an officer that had been transferred from the state following an indictment by the IG due to a misdemeanour but he got his way back through the APC candidate’s influence to supervise the election. The same person became the APC star witness in a case he was no longer party to, following his re-deployment out of the state.
“If you look at the veracity of our matter, you will know that it was between light and darkness. Technically, they were even knocked out by the tribunal and their case dismissed. But the panel did not only base their judgement on that. Rather the judges addressed their points one by one. So we are waiting for their appeal.”
Diri characterized the Sylva legal process as a cunning scheme by individuals who sought to pilfer in broad open and continued to complain about an injustice committed by the tribunal.
