Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has defeated Timi Alaibe at the Supreme Court.
The apex court on Monday dismissed the appeal by Alaibe challenging the declaration of Diri as the winner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election held on September 3, 2019.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour dismissed the appeal.
Alaibe’s lawyer, Chief 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, who had lost the suit at both the Federal High Court in Owerri and the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, had in the suit 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.
Adedipe then withdrew the suit and was struck out by the court.
