By Samuel Oyadongha & Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA—The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, upheld the election of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.

The court, in a unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of justices, dismissed the joint appeal of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate in the state, Mr. Timipre Sylva, against Dickson.

Justice Rotimi Bada in the lead judgment,  held that the appeal lacked merit, even as it upheld the July 26 verdict of the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the bona-fide winner of the governorship contest.

The appellants had, through their lawyer, Mr. Sebastine Hon, SAN, prayed the appellate court to set aside the decision of the tribunal, sack Dickson and order fresh governorship election in Bayelsa State.

Sylva, who is a former governor of the state and his party, among other things, contended that the tribunal misled itself, misapplied the law and came to a wrong conclusion in its verdict when it declined to void the election which they said was fraught with manifest irregularities.

Meanwhile, Governor Dickson has hailed the judiciary for asserting its independence and steadfastness in protecting the sanctity of the ballot as well as upholding itself as the bastion of the nation’s democracy.

Dickson, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, after the Appeal Court upheld the verdict of the election petition tribunal called on the former governor, Timipre Sylva, to stop what he described as the flagrant abuse of the judicial process and the needless distractions designed at overheating the polity.

He noted that the judgement indicated that the resolve of the people did not go in vain as he called for greater vigilance to protect democracy in the country.