The Independent National Electoral Commission has said it would not conduct any fresh governorship election in Bayelsa State as requested by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to the commission, it finished its work on the Bayelsa State governorship poll last Friday.
INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday.
The paper also quoted other unnamed top officials of INEC, as saying the commission had never granted such a request and that of the APC would not be the first.
“The APC is asking for what is not possible. The party should forget a fresh governorship election in Bayelsa State, it quoted one of the officials as saying.
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Recall that the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, had in a letter dated February 14, 2020 and addressed to the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, requested for a fresh election in Bayelsa State.
He had argued that the swearing-in of Sen. Douyle Diri, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor on Friday, was unconstitutional as he did not meet the mandatory constitutional requirements.
Oshiomhole contended that although the Supreme Court nullified its candidate, David Lyon’s victory, Diri on his part did not meet the mandatory requirements to become governor because he did not win in two-thirds of the local governments in the state.
According to the APC, Bayelsa State has eight local government areas, hence the two thirds of the local government areas will be approximately six local government areas.
Meanwhile, it said Diri managed to win in five local governments.
